Mass Extinctions And The Evolution Of Dinosaurs

October 1, 2008

Dinosaurs survived two mass extinctions and 50 million years before taking over the world and dominating ecosystems, according to new research published this week.

Illustration of a Tarbosaurus, a cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex, chasing two Parasaurolophuses.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Allan Tooley)

Reporting in Biology Letters, Steve Brusatte, Professor Michael Benton, and colleagues at the University of Bristol show that dinosaurs did not proliferate immediately after they originated, but that their rise was a slow and complicated event, and driven by two mass extinctions.

“The sheer size of dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus makes us think there was something special about these animals that preordained them for success right from the beginning,” Brusatte said. “However, our research shows that the rise of dinosaurs was a prolonged and complicated process. It isn’t clear from the data that they would go on to dominate the world until at least 30 million years after they originated.”

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