What mammals were around with dinosaurs?
The earliest known mammals were the morganucodontids, tiny shrew-size creatures that lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs 210 million years ago. They were one of several different mammal lineages that emerged around that time. All living mammals today, including us, descend from the one line that survived.
Did dinosaurs exist at the same time as mammals explain your answer using the geologic time scale?
No! After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth. However, small mammals (including shrew-sized primates) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs.
How did mammals evolve after the extinction of dinosaurs?
Mammals, after 150 million years of subservience, attained dominance. With dinosaurs no longer eating them, mammals made quick evolutionary strides, assuming new forms and lifestyles and taking over ecological niches vacated by extinct competitors.
Did dinosaurs evolve into mammals?
Mammals first appeared at least 178 million years ago, and scampered amid the dinosaurs until the majority of those beasts, with the exception of the birds, were wiped out 66 million years ago. But mammals didn’t have to wait for that extinction to diversify into many forms and species.
How long did mammals exist before dinosaurs?
Although they came into their own only after the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, mammals had maintained a low-profile existence for some 150 million years before that.
What happened to the dinosaurs after they went extinct?
The extinction of the dinosaurs was one such major event, eliminating a once-dominant group of competitors while some mammals survived. But the mammals did not simply step into ecological roles vacated by the dinosaurs.
How many species of mammals were there in the Cenozoic era?
In the early Cenozoic era, after the dinosaurs became extinct, the number and diversity of mammals exploded. In just 10 million years — a brief flash of time by geologic standards — about 130 genera (groups of related species) had evolved, encompassing some 4,000 species.
Why are there so many different species of mammals?
The astonishing diversity of mammalian species today stems in part from the continuing breakup of the continents that began some 200 million years ago and sent different landmasses moving apart.