In the wake of the mass extinction 66 million years ago that wiped out all of the dinosaurs apart from the birds, mammals underwent an evolutionary explosion. The small species that survived the consequences of the asteroid-triggered “end-Cretaceous” event diversified and began to evolve into new niches, filling forests that sprung up from the ashes of the Cretaceous world. Now, palaeontologists…
Life
Mammals grew big after dinosaurs died but their brains stayed small
After the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals took over and had room to evolve larger bodies, but their brains remained small to begin with
By Riley Black
31 March 2022