A discovery has shaken the foundations of the paleontology and everything that we have been taught for decades: our ancestors may have walked alongside dinosaurs that populated the Earth.
This deduction, published in the journal Current Biology with the name 'A timescale for placental mammal diversification based on Bayesian modeling of the fossil record', reveals a new perspective on the evolutionary history of humanity and its relationship with these animals, something only seen in science fiction films.
The scientists, using advanced statistical techniqueshave pored over fossils of placental mammals, including our own ancestors.
Their research reveals irrefutable evidence of a brief but real coexistence between humans and dinosaurs before the mass extinction that marked a turning point in the history of our planet.
“Placental mammals originated before the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction, from the Late Cretaceous to the Jurassic,” can be read in the research.
The coexistence between our ancestors and dinosaurs is attributed to a lack of competition from these giant reptiles, which allowed placental mammals to diversify and evolve in a world previously dominated by dinosaurs.
Despite the scarcity and small size of placental mammal fossils from that period, scientists have managed to accurately estimate the moment when these groups evolved, shedding light on the enigma of our evolutionary history.
“Lineage divergence must occur before it can manifest phenotypically in descendant lineages. This, combined with the lack of uniformity of the rock and fossil records, requires that the fossil record be interpreted rather than read literally,” the study explains. .
This discovery not only rewrites part of the history of life on Earthbut also opens new doors for the exploration and understanding of our evolutionary past.
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