In the aftermath of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that doomed the dinosaurs, it appears that brawn was more important than brains for the mammals that managed to survive the calamity and conquer a changed world.
Will DunhamWASHINGTON -
"The process to get large brains to emerge in mammals after the extinction was much slower than we previously thought," said Ornella Bertrand, a postdoctoral researcher in mammal paleontology at the University of Edinburgh and lead author of the study published in the journal Science http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo1985.
Mammals began to evolve greater body size almost immediately after the mass extinction that eliminated the dinosaurs, aside from their bird descendants. Before it, mammals typically were about the size of a shrew. During the Paleocene, some got as big as bears."When the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, an unprecedented opportunity became available for mammals, and they started invading the ecological niches left emptied by becoming bigger," Bertrand said.
Mammals now boast the animal kingdom's largest brains relative to body size. Their Eocene brain growth occurred as competition for resources intensified and complex behavior became vital for species survival, Bertrand said. Some archaic Paleocene lineages disappeared, supplanted by mammals more like those living today.
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