Why didn’t the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth also lead to the extinction of all other living species?
In: Planetary Science
Because life, uh, finds a way.
Earth is no stranger to mass extinction events, and life has always recovered. So it’s no surprise that something would have survived the end of the Cretaceous. In the case of the dinosaurs, it was likely a combination of lack of food and shelter.
Dinosaurs were warm blooded, and dinosaurs of the Cretaceous tended to be larger than their Triassic and Jurassic ancestors. Being large and warm blooded means you need a metric ton of food to survive. Smaller avian dinosaurs (birds) and larger cold blooded reptiles such as crocodiles had an easier time dealing with a food shortage simply because their food requirements were lower.
Being small was also an advantage for mammals. Our tiny ancestors could burrow or hide in natural shelters such as caves or trees. Fur, as with feathers, is also a great insulator, so keeping warm during a time of low sunlight was less of an issue.
Life is nothing if not adaptable. Even with catastrophic events such as an asteroid impact or anthropogenic climate change, something survives. Dinosaurs dominated the landscape for almost 200 million years. Then the world changed around them. Small fluffy things could deal with the change. Tyrannosaurus could not.
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