Scientists have found: our ancestors witnessed the extinction of dinosaurs (4 photos)

Paleobiologists conducted a new curious study. They found that before their extinction, dinosaurs still for some time they lived next to the ancestors of man. led to such conclusions statistical analysis of placental mammal fossils.





The results were recently published in Current Biology a curious new study from the University of Bristol, UK, and the University of Friborg, Switzerland. Paleobiologists conducted a statistical analysis of placental mammal fossils, and came to the conclusion that before the dinosaurs became extinct, some kind of time lived the ancestors of ancient man. Dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago, as a result of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction - and previously dominated the opinion that placental mammals (including humans) appeared only after this event. Now, this notion has been debunked.



A group of paleobiologists found that the earliest representatives of the plantentals could appear in the Cretaceous period, that is, exist alongside dinosaurs for a short period. Team also suggested that our ancestors witnessed extinction dinosaurs.

"We have collected thousands of placental fossils mammals, and were able to see the patterns of emergence and extinction different groups. Based on the data obtained, we estimated when placental mammals have evolved," said co-author Research, Emily Carlyle.





Scientists cannot say exactly what the then ancestors - but they definitely belonged to the order of primates. Judging by the most early fossils, they could be small creatures from the order primates. In total, during the study, experts studied the data of 380 families of placental mammals. Of these, 21.3% could have lived in the Cretaceous period - in addition to primates, these were lagomorphs (rabbits and hares) and carnivores (dogs and cats).