…into numerous ecological niches?
Under times of extreme ecological distress such as this, how far would, say, five million years of evolution get you? How much diversification.
This is research for a novel. Thanks!
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How Long After The K-t Extinction Event Did It Take For Surviving Mammals To Diversify…?
Posted on May 24, 2013.
I’ll ask Captain Geologist when he gets home. He’s working an all-nighter.
Mammals were well established before the K-T event. The challenge is figuring out how line may survived and reestablished themselves. If a single line of placental mammals (monotremes and marsupials branched off about 165Mya), clear members of groups were present closer to10 million years after. At 55Mya, clearcut fossil primates (Carpolestes) and bats are present. Overall biomass was decreased in the immediate aftermath. The radiation is apparent as biomass is restored, since more fossils are available, and the richer ecosystem supports greater diversity.
Maybe this will help…http://www.molekularesystematik.uni-olde…
“Our analyses of how extant lineages accumulated through time show that net perlineage diversification rates barely change across the Cretaceous-Tertiary
boundary. Instead, rates spike significantly with the origins of the currently recognized placental superorders and orders ~89 million years ago before falling
and remaining low until accelerating again throughout the Eocene and Oligocene.
Our results show that the phylogenetic fuses leading to the explosion of extant
placental orders are not only very much longer than suspected previously, but also
challenge the hypothesis that the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event had a
major, direct influence on the diversification of today’s mammals.”