Sunday 28 November 2010

Size Of Mammals Exploded After Dinosaur Extinction


Researchers from the University of New Mexico have demonstrated that the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago paved the way for mammals to get bigger - about a thousand times bigger than they had been. The study is the first to quantitatively explore the patterns of body size of mammals after the demise of the dinosaurs.

The goal of the research was to revisit key questions about size, specifically in mammals. Size impacts all aspects of biology, from reproduction to extinction. Understanding the constraints operating on size is crucial to understanding how ecosystems work.

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