In the geological blink of an eye, mammals moved from an obscure group
of vertebrates into a class of planetary dominance. Why? J. David
Archibald's provocative study identifies the fall of dinosaurs as the
factor that allowed mammals to evolve into the dominant tetrapod form.
Archibald refutes the widely accepted single-cause impact theory for
dinosaur extinction. He demonstrates that multiple factors--massive
volcanic eruptions, loss of shallow seas, and extraterrestrial
impact--likely led to their demise. While their avian relatives
ultimately survived and thrived, terrestrial dinosaurs did not. Taking
their place as the dominant land and sea tetrapods were mammals, whose
radiation was explosive following nonavian dinosaur extinction.
Archibald argues that because of dinosaurs, Mesozoic mammals changed
relatively slowly for 145 million years compared to the prodigious
Cenozoic radiation that followed. Finally out from under the shadow of
the giant reptiles, Cenozoic mammals evolved into the forms we recognize
today in a mere ten million years after dinosaur extinction.
Extinction and Radiation is the first book to convincingly link the
rise of mammals with the fall of dinosaurs. Piecing together evidence
from both molecular biology and the fossil record, Archibald shows how
science is edging closer to understanding exactly what happened during
the mass extinctions near the K/T boundary and the radiation that
followed.
