Editor's Summary
29 March 2007
The long hello
Did modern-style mammals evolve in a huge burst after the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, or did they take longer to assume modern forms? The debate rumbles on, with palaeontologists generally favouring a short-fuse 'burst' model, and molecular phylogeneticists suggesting that mammals had much deeper roots. Bininda-Emonds et al. have used a massive set of molecular data to show that not only did mammalian evolution have deep roots, but that the extant Orders of mammals did not become established until many millions of years after the dinosaurs had gone. And the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous had little discernible effect on mammalian evolution.
News and Views: Evolutionary biology: Mass survivals
The conclusion that the primary divergences of the modern groups of mammals occurred in the mid-Cretaceous requires fresh thinking about this facet of evolutionary history — especially in ecological terms.
David Penny & Matthew J. Phillips
doi:10.1038/446501a
Article: The delayed rise of present-day mammals
Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, Marcel Cardillo, Kate E. Jones, Ross D. E. MacPhee, Robin M. D. Beck, Richard Grenyer, Samantha A. Price, Rutger A. Vos, John L. Gittleman & Andy Purvis
doi:10.1038/nature05634
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (685K) | Supplementary information
