{"id":12161,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=12161"},"modified":"2022-05-11T11:07:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T09:07:56","slug":"prehistoric-mammals-bulked-up-to-survive-the-tumultuous-world-after-the-dinosaurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/05\/04\/prehistoric-mammals-bulked-up-to-survive-the-tumultuous-world-after-the-dinosaurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Prehistoric mammals bulked up to survive the tumultuous world after the dinosaurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brawn, not brains, allowed our ancestors to flourish after the asteroid hit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In the first 10 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals developed bigger bodies to help cope with the radical changes that were occurring on Earth, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found.<\/p>\n\n

To make the discovery, the team CT-scanned a collection of complete skulls and skeletons of mammals that lived in the badlands of northwestern New Mexico immediately after the mass extinction of dinosaurs.<\/p>\n\n

It was previously thought that mammals\u2019 relative brain sizes \u2013 the size of their brains in relation to their bodies \u2013 increased following the catastrophic asteroid impact that ended the reign of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The theory being that bigger brains would have allowed the prehistoric mammals to take advantage of any new opportunities that opened up as the dinosaurs died out.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
CT scans of the Palaeocene mammal Arctocyon (left) and the later Eocene mammal Hyrachyus (right) with the purple areas showing where the brain would\u2019ve been located<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

However, the researchers\u2019 findings show that the relative brain sizes actually decreased <\/em>at first, due to early mammals\u2019 rapid increase in body size.<\/p>\n\n

Results of scans also suggest the animals relied heavily on their sense of smell, and that their vision and other senses were far less developed.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cLarge brains are expensive to maintain and, if not necessary to acquire resources, would have probably been detrimental for the survival of early placental mammals in the chaos and upheaval after the asteroid impact,\u201d said lead researcher Dr Ornella Bertrand.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Dr Ornella Bertrand with the fossilised skulls of early mammals<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until around 10 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs that early members of modern mammal groups, such as primates, began to develop larger brains and a complex range of senses and motor skills.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe mammals that usurped the dinosaurs were fairly dim-witted, and only millions of years later did many types of mammals develop bigger brains as they were competing with each other to form new ecosystems,\u201d added senior author Prof Steve Brusatte.<\/p>\n\n

IMAGES: ORNELLA BERTRAND\/SARAH SHELLEY X2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brawn, not brains, allowed our ancestors to flourish after the asteroid hit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"22","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"22","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-22-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-22-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000089653||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089653||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue377","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue377","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue377","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue377","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-10T12:30:21Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"6339705a-4c01-4ad8-892f-1f45a6dd59d0","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T09:08:01Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AYzlwWkwBStiJLx9Fpt1Z0A","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[20,15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f.jpg",776,1393,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f-167x300.jpg",167,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f-768x1379.jpg",768,1379,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f-570x1024.jpg",570,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f.jpg",776,1393,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/6a8c4534-5af8-420f-ab99-48ced391993f.jpg",776,1393,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Brawn, not brains, allowed our ancestors to flourish after the asteroid hit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12850,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161\/revisions\/12850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}