I’m starting to take an interest in how many mammal species were wiped out 66 Ma ago, along with the dinosaurs.
Let’s start at twice that age, 122 Ma to 130 Ma, during the Jurassic, mammal skeletons actually unearthed in the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_the_Yixian_Formation#Mammals
mollwollfumble said:
I’m starting to take an interest in how many mammal species were wiped out 66 Ma ago, along with the dinosaurs.Let’s start at twice that age, 122 Ma to 130 Ma, during the Jurassic, mammal skeletons actually unearthed in the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_the_Yixian_Formation#Mammals
I hope you all spotted my deliberate error.
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
I’m starting to take an interest in how many mammal species were wiped out 66 Ma ago, along with the dinosaurs.Let’s start at twice that age, 122 Ma to 130 Ma, during the Jurassic, mammal skeletons actually unearthed in the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_the_Yixian_Formation#Mammals
I hope you all spotted my deliberate error.
I did, dinosaurs left the stage 65 million years ago.
Bubblecar said:
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
I’m starting to take an interest in how many mammal species were wiped out 66 Ma ago, along with the dinosaurs.Let’s start at twice that age, 122 Ma to 130 Ma, during the Jurassic, mammal skeletons actually unearthed in the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_the_Yixian_Formation#Mammals
I hope you all spotted my deliberate error.
I did, dinosaurs left the stage 65 million years ago.
There’s been sightings in Tasmania.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bubblecar said:
mollwollfumble said:I hope you all spotted my deliberate error.
I did, dinosaurs left the stage 65 million years ago.
There’s been sightings in Tasmania.
Just big feral roosters.
Bubblecar said:
Like Cassowaries, only bigger. Scary, really.
Peak Warming Man said:
Bubblecar said:I did, dinosaurs left the stage 65 million years ago.
There’s been sightings in Tasmania.
Just big feral roosters.
Some true Jurassic park mammaliaforms. 156 Ma to 146 Ma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Paleobiota_of_the_Morrison_Formation
Mostly very small. Docodon weighed about 30 grams.
Primates lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.
“It has long been accepted that the adaptive radiation of modern placental mam-
mals, like that of modern birds, did not begin until after the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T)
boundary 65 million years (Ma) ago, following the extinction of the dinosaurs. The first
undoubted fossil relatives of modern primates appear in the record 55 Ma ago. How-
ever, in agreement with evidence from molecular phylogenies calibrated with dates
from denser parts of the fossil record, a statistical analysis of the primate record allow-
ing for major gaps now indicates a Cretaceous origin of euprimates 80–90 Ma ago. If this
interpretation is correct, primates overlapped with dinosaurs by some 20 Ma prior to the
K/T boundary, and the initial radiation of primates was probably truncated as part of the
major extinction event that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous.”
mollwollfumble said:
Primates lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.“It has long been accepted that the adaptive radiation of modern placental mam-
mals, like that of modern birds, did not begin until after the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T)
boundary 65 million years (Ma) ago, following the extinction of the dinosaurs. The first
undoubted fossil relatives of modern primates appear in the record 55 Ma ago. How-
ever, in agreement with evidence from molecular phylogenies calibrated with dates
from denser parts of the fossil record, a statistical analysis of the primate record allow-
ing for major gaps now indicates a Cretaceous origin of euprimates 80–90 Ma ago. If this
interpretation is correct, primates overlapped with dinosaurs by some 20 Ma prior to the
K/T boundary, and the initial radiation of primates was probably truncated as part of the
major extinction event that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous.”
A very interesting study, but there are large gaps of evidence and rather a lot of circumstantial evidence. However, the development of Angiosperms (flowering plants) to the point of them replacing the conifers as the dominant trees during the period in question, would have opened up huge opportunities for mammal diversification and it seems quite probable that primitive shrew sized primates began to evolve around this period.
Unfortunately, the fossil record is non-existent for primates prior to the K-T boundary and it is quite likely if they did exist at that time, many would have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs, leaving fewer fragile fossils to be discovered immediately after the catastrophic event. Countering this is the rapid mammal expansion after the K-T boundary, leading to greater primate diversity, until around 55 ma from when the earliest fossils of distinctly recognisable primates are dated. So still a long way to go, but very likely another big step in our understanding of the primate family tree.
