Metatherian Species Drop (IMAGE)

Pensoft Publishers

Metatherian Species Drop

Caption

This diagram is showing how severely metatherian mammals were affected when an asteroid hit Earth at the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. In North America, the number of metatherian species dropped from twenty species within the last million years of the Cretaceous Period, to just three species in the first million years of the Paleogene Period.

Credit

Dr Thomas Williamson

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