When people tell you something is a fact, you should ask them why are they so certain.

by Newt Gingrich

I am reading Stephen Brusatte’s remarkable “Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History from The Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us.” It is a remarkable book because Brusatte is a delightful writer and storyteller.

We are living in the greatest period of paleontology discoveries in history. The development of new technologies has enabled us to understand events and animals in a way that was literally impossible even 50 years ago. Furthermore, there are more paleontologists in more countries, and the sheer opportunity for collecting has expanded widely.

Traditionally, we thought dinosaurs were totally dominant, and mammals were tiny creatures hiding in burrows and skulking about to avoid being eaten by their giant neighbors.

As Brusatte points out, we are now discovering many different mammal species that flourished during the age of dinosaurs which we never knew existed. So, we really must rethink our entire mindset about that ancient ecosystem. He argues that mammals dominated at night, and in confined places, while dinosaurs dominated during the day and in open spaces.

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