Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 446, 501-502 (29 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446501a; Published online 28 March 2007
Evolutionary biology: Mass survivals
David Penny1 & Matthew J. Phillips1
Abstract
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.
On page 507 of this issue, Bininda-Emonds and co-authors1 present an evolutionary tree of more than 4,500 mammals, and conclude that more than 40 lineages of modern mammals have survived from the Cretaceous, some 100 million to 85 million years (Myr) ago, to the present. This is paralleled by Brown and colleagues' analyses for birds, just published in Biology Letters2: they claim that more than 40 avian lineages have likewise survived from before the extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary 65 Myr ago.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Evolutionary biology Re-crowning mammalsNature News and Views (21 Jun 2007)
Faunas of a southern worldNature News and Views (12 May 1988)
RESEARCH
Cretaceous eutherians and Laurasian origin for placental mammals near the K/T boundaryNature Letters to Editor (21 Jun 2007)
The delayed rise of present-day mammalsNature Article (29 Mar 2007)
See all 10 matches for Research