How did mammals come to rule the world? – podcast
About 325 million years ago, when Britain sat near the equator as part of the supercontinent Pangaea, two populations of a small, scaly, swamp-dwelling creature separated from each other. One of these lineages, over millions and millions of years, evolved into mammals. Our ancestors shared the planet with dinosaurs, survived an asteroid and made it through an ice age. This fascinating history is documented in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, a new book by the palaeontologist Prof Steve Brusatte. The Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis talks to Madeleine Finlay about her visit with Brusatte and what she learned about the strange mammals that once walked the Earth. What might their past reveal about their future in a rapidly changing world?Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Nicola Davis, sound design by Rudi Zygadlo, and the executive producer was Isabelle Roughol Tags: Science Mammals Dinosaurs Fossils Evolution Zoology Biology Source Type: news