National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Dinosaur Extinction Spurred Rise of Modern Mammals, Study Says


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

The skull of a 70-million-year-old mammal (left) resembles the skull of a modern mole (right), but the ancient animal is from a long-dead side branch of the mammal family, according to a new study.

The study, which compared mammal fossils from the past 150 million years with living mammals, found that the modern placental mammals first appeared after the extinction of dinosaurs.

Photograph courtesy John Wible/CMNH

MOST VIEWED NEWS

"Lost" Amazon Complex Found; Shapes Seen by Satellite

Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture

PICTURES: Tigers Butchered for Trade at "Zoos" in China

NEWS FEEDS

Get our news delivered directly to your desktop—free.
How to Use XML or RSS