Fresh insights into the habitats and food types that supported the dinosaurs suggest that their environments were robust and thriving, until the fateful day, at the end of the Cretaceous period.
The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that the dinosaurs were struck down in their prime and were not in decline, at the time the asteroid hit.
Scientists have long debated why non-bird dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, became extinct – whereas mammals and other species such as turtles and crocodiles survived.
[...] Paleontologists have long known that many small mammals lived alongside the dinosaurs. But this research reveals that these mammals were diversifying their diets, adapting to their environments and becoming more important components of ecosystems as the Cretaceous unfolded. Meanwhile, the dinosaurs were entrenched in stable ecological niches to which they were supremely well adapted.
Mammals did not just take advantage of the dinosaurs dying, experts say. They were creating their own advantages through diversifying – by occupying new ecological niches, evolving more varied diets and behaviours and and rapidly adapting to endure small shifts in climate.
Experts say these behaviours probably helped them to survive the asteroid strike, as they were better suited than the dinosaurs to cope with the radical and abrupt destruction.
Journal Reference:
Jorge García-Girón, Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Janne Alahuhta, et al., Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous, Sci Adv, 8, 2022. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add5040
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Monday December 19, @05:26AM (2 children)
Still does not explain why crocodiles survived.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday December 19, @06:34AM (1 child)
Probably some combination of location, diet, and metabolism. They obviously didn't all die of exposure or starvation. From this link [a-z-animals.com]:
So my guess is that enough crocodiles engorged themselves on the dead animals following the impact, and just stuck around for a year or more until more food and breeding opportunities came by. Dinosaurs couldn't do that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, @02:46PM
For example with 7 billion humans on this planet, some are likely to survive even if an asteroid smacks into the Earth.
"Fitness" would be part of why the survivors survive but "luck" would also play a huge part in it.