Walking with Beasts - Animal Perspectives

by miguelsantiago1789

In the aftermath of the great mass extinction of the dinosaurs, the world seem destined to be devoid of large life-forms, but as millions of years passed, the dinosaurs' reign would be forgotten, and mammals would replace them as the dominators of the planet.

Prologue

For 220 million years, the dinosaurs ruled this world, while living in their shadows were a group of animals which couldn't have been more different. These were our ancestors: small, furry creatures called mammals, clinging to safety wherever they could.

But the time for mammals would come.

66 million years ago, volcanic activity started to poison the atmosphere. The last dinosaurs were already living on a sick planet, when their nemesis arrived…from space.

An asteroid 10 kilometers wide slammed into Earth to mark the end of the reign of dinosaurs.

These are the stories about all that happened next.

The survivors of the extinction all had one thing in common: their size. Nearly every animal over kilograms had been killed, leaving a world of little creatures. Among them were the mammals.

Through these stories, you will learn how mammals left behind their small beginnings and took over the world.

In the course of 20 million years, mammals got more and more successful, until they were the biggest, fiercest, and most spectacular animals on the planet. Whatever the climate, whatever the habitat, mammals made it their own. Their great strength was their ability to adapt.

They grew to gigantic sizes.

They evolved into powerful killers, like the infamous saber-toothed cats.

And they even laid claim to the oceans.

Then, around 4 million years, came mankind's own origins in a type of ape that came down from the trees and walked upright.

This journey finishes just 30,000 years ago in the Ice Ages, when our planet turned cold, and our ancestors hunted in the realm of the mammoth.