The asteroid hit the earth, why did the primate ancestors survive?

Wildfires caused by asteroid impacts have led to global deforestation, and tree species are particularly at risk of extinction

In this study, computer models, fossil records, and information from living mammals show that most surviving mammals do not rely on trees, although a few mammals living on trees—including human ancestors—may be enough Flexible and able to adapt to the disappearance of trees

This study points out the impact of the extinction event of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary on the early evolution and diversification of mammals

"Although primates live on trees, one possible explanation for how to survive across the K-Pg boundary may be due to certain behavioral flexibility, which may be a key factor for their survival," the first of the paper Said Jonathan Hughes, one of the authors and a PhD student in the laboratory of Jeremy Searle, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University's School of Agriculture and Life Sciences

The research was published in the October 11th issue of " Ecology and Evolution "

The earliest mammals appeared about 300 million years ago.

Hughes said: "At the same time, after the extinction of dinosaurs and other species, the surviving mammals entered all new niches

In this study, the researchers used the published mammalian phylogeny (a branch diagram showing the evolutionary relationship between groups of organisms)

Fossils of mammals near K-Pg are very rare, and it is difficult to explain animal habitat preferences

In general, the model showed that the species that survived the K-Pg event were mainly non-arboreal animals, with only two possible exceptions: primates and marsupial ancestors

The researchers also studied how mammals as a group change over time

Hughes said: "We can see that before the K-Pg event, around that time period, there was a huge transition from arboreal and semi-arboreal to non-arboreal, so we not only saw most non-arboreal [ Species], and they are rapidly transitioning from arboreal

Jonathan J.