The Day the Dinosaurs Died Page #7

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But perhaps even astonishing than

what killed the dinosaurs...

is what happened after they were gone.

The asteroid and its aftermath

ended the age of the dinosaurs.

But as the cloud started to

clear, months or years later,

the dormant plants came back to life.

And a tiny group of animals came out

of hiding to inherit the Earth.

Creatures that would,

over millions of years,

evolve into a huge range

of different species...

Including us.

On the tip of my finger right here

is a lower tooth of

something called mesodma.

This was a little guy who was

probably about the size of a mouse.

This is one tough little mammal.

One of the very few

species known to survive

through the global devastation.

It's a blade-like tooth.

It was able to feed on things

like insects and seeds,

so it didn't have to

rely on photosynthesis.

Mammals had lived in the shadow of

the dinosaurs for 100 million years.

But now it was their turn.

This chance event that was

the doom of the dinosaurs

was a stroke of luck for

the surviving mammals.

With the dinosaurs gone,

suddenly, the landscape

was empty of competitors

and ripe with possibilities.

Just half a million years after

the extinction of the dinosaurs,

and landscapes around the globe

had filled up with mammals

of all shapes and sizes.

Fast forward another 60

million years or so,

and we have the evolution of an

extraordinary upright walking ape

that contemplates its own existence

and the demise of ancient

creatures they'd never even seen.

Chances are, if it wasn't

for that asteroid,

we wouldn't be here to

tell the story today.

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