Top Tweets for #rodentsized

about 2 months ago

Even in the #Cretaceous, the times of the #dinosaurs, lived #larger #mammals, as #paleontologists recently discovered. During the Cretaceous period, roughly 130 million years ago, small, #rodentsized mammals lived alongside dinosaurs, leading secretive lives to avoid falling prey to their much larger dinosaur counterparts. However, recent research shows that the dynamic could also work the other way around. Authors P. V. Buck et al. (2026) conducted research in an area of present-day #Brazil, specifically the #BotucatuFormation (#EarlyCretaceous) in the #ParanáBasin, which featured #desertlike #landscapes during the Cretaceous. Paleontologists know this site primarily for its preserved #footprints. There, the researchers discovered footprints belonging to a mammal that must have been roughly the size of a dog or even a mountain lion. This is unexpected, given that this was still an era dominated by dinosaurs. While a mammal might gain an energetic advantage by growing larger due to #evolution, such size also makes it more conspicuous and less agile, and thus seemingly easy prey for various local dinosaur species. Unless, that is, the animal turned the tables and used its size to hunt down smaller dinosaurs, a hypothesis the authors also consider likely. According to the researchers, the discovery of these tracks points to what may have been the #largestknown mammal living in that region at the time. The authors assigned the fossils to the ichnofamily #Chelichnopodidae. I welcome such #paleontologicalfindings because they demonstrate that the age of dinosaurs did not have to end before the era of mammals could begin. That is simply not how evolution works. Species adapt to their environments through natural selection, and this certainly applied to mammals during the time of the dinosaurs as well. Therefore, in my view, it is generally reasonable to assume that the morphological diversity of mammals during the Cretaceous period was greater than the current limited #fossilrecord suggests. The study extended our #ecological idea about mammals in #Gondwana of the early Cretaceous. © #StefanFWirth, August 2026, Berlin please support my science communication and arts: ko-fi 👇link in my first answer reference: P. V. Buck et al. (2026): DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2026.106223 👇 link in my first answer #illustrations: © Stefan F. Wirth, AI-assisted artistic illustrations based on my hand-drawn sketches and manually edited, August 2026, Berlin 1) - 4) Dune landscape in the Cretaceous period featuring an unknown and likely predatory mammal the size of a dog or mountain lion.

wirthstef's tweet photo. Even in the #Cretaceous, the times of the #dinosaurs, lived #larger #mammals, as #paleontologists recently discovered.

During the Cretaceous period, roughly 130 million years ago, small, #rodentsized mammals lived alongside dinosaurs, leading secretive lives to avoid falling prey to their much larger dinosaur counterparts. However, recent research shows that the dynamic could also work the other way around. Authors P. V. Buck et al. (2026) conducted research in an area of present-day #Brazil, specifically the #BotucatuFormation (#EarlyCretaceous) in the #ParanáBasin, which featured #desertlike #landscapes during the Cretaceous. Paleontologists know this site primarily for its preserved #footprints.
There, the researchers discovered footprints belonging to a mammal that must have been roughly the size of a dog or even a mountain lion. This is unexpected, given that this was still an era dominated by dinosaurs. While a mammal might gain an energetic advantage by growing larger due to #evolution, such size also makes it more conspicuous and less agile, and thus seemingly easy prey for various local dinosaur species. Unless, that is, the animal turned the tables and used its size to hunt down smaller dinosaurs, a hypothesis the authors also consider likely. According to the researchers, the discovery of these tracks points to what may have been the #largestknown mammal living in that region at the time. The authors assigned the fossils to the ichnofamily #Chelichnopodidae.

I welcome such #paleontologicalfindings because they demonstrate that the age of dinosaurs did not have to end before the era of mammals could begin. That is simply not how evolution works. Species adapt to their environments through natural selection, and this certainly applied to mammals during the time of the dinosaurs as well. Therefore, in my view, it is generally reasonable to assume that the morphological diversity of mammals during the Cretaceous period was greater than the current limited #fossilrecord suggests.
The study extended our #ecological idea about mammals in #Gondwana of the early Cretaceous.

© #StefanFWirth, August 2026, Berlin

please support my science communication and arts:
ko-fi 👇link in my first answer

reference:

P. V. Buck et al. (2026):
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2026.106223 👇 link in my first answer

#illustrations:
© Stefan F. Wirth, AI-assisted artistic illustrations based on my hand-drawn sketches and manually edited, August 2026, Berlin
1) - 4) Dune landscape in the Cretaceous period featuring an unknown and likely predatory mammal the size of a dog or mountain lion.

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