Evolution of Mammals

We all know what mammals are. They are everywhere, from squirrels and bats to elephants and blue whales. The planet is covered in them, and they dominate the lands. For now, anyways. When did they evolve? What did we come from? When did we start to flourish? All of these questions will hopefully be answered in this Info About Things subpage.

Before Mammals

To understand where mammals came from, we must understand what was around before them. In the Late Permian period, Pangaea existed. One large supercontinent stood above the sea. A large desert that stretched from Africa to Siberia kept growing, and getting hotter. The world was completely dominated by pelycosaurs, or mammal-like reptiles. Several successful Non-mammalian therapsids hunted and foraged. They were called proto-mammals, creatures that were not considered reptiles or mammals. Some notable therapsids are: Homo sapiens, Gorgonops, Canis lupus, and Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla, or Western Lowland Gorilla.

Then, the Great Dying happened. Almost all of the pelycosaurs died out, with several therapsids remaining. Lystrosaurus, an herbivorous therapsid, became the most successful animal to ever live. Over half of all land vertebrates were these things in the early Triassic. Then, they died out. In the late Triassic, dinosauromorphs evolved. Pseudosuchians dominated the land, and mammals were shadowed by them. However, they were more successful than dinosaurs. When the Triassic mass extinction murdered all of the pseudosuchians, dinosaurs took over. Mammals continued to be shadowed. They evolved to give live birth, and their kids become more developed at birth. Their omnivorous diet allowed them to eat anything. Mammals become nocturnal, so no big things slaughter them. No mammals got bigger than a cat, and they all looked like mice. Some monkey-looking creatures evolved, but we evolved from the mouse-like ones. To be honest, I have no idea what happened to the monkey-like things. Then, something happened that changed everything.

The World Nearly Ends, Again

"Then, something happened that changed everything." Isn't that a great ending to a book in the middle or beginning of a series? Anyways, that thing that happened was really a lot of things, as discussed in "The Cretaceous Mass Extinction" page. Many crucial dinosaurs slowly died out, such as Triceratops and Edmontosaurus. An asteroid/comet smashed into Earth. Climate change may have been at play. Horrible eruptions that lasted millions of years came from volcanoes in India. The world seemed like it was about to end, again. As if the Permian-Triassic mass extinction wasn't enough, we got another mass extinction.

After the chaos, no non-avian dinosaurs walked. None breathed. They were all deader than a fish with no guts. Certain reptiles, such as lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and turtles survived. Mammals, however, were the best adapted to this ruined world. Just a million years later, primates would evolve. For now, however, the world is empty, waiting for mammals to take over. And they did, evolving into herbivores, carnivores, and staying as omnivores. They became big, they flew, and they killed each other. Eventually, whales would take to the sea, and the entire world would be inhabited by them. Lemmings and polar bears in the arctic, wild dogs in African savannahs, and blue whales cruising through the ocean. The world entered a new era.

Eventually, the Homo genus appeared, as Homo habilis, then Homo erectus, and eventually Homo sapiens. Contrary to popular belief, we came before neanderthals, and neanderthals actually had bigger brains than us. However, we, being complete stupid idiots, didn't recognize how amazing peace is, and Homo sapiens sapiens, through lots of murder, became the only human subspecies remaining. Due to the fact that we and neanderthals interbred, about 50% of the world is part neanderthal.

Our murderous nature described in the paragraph above is still happening today. We (or are leaders and people in power) don't care about anything other than convenience, and having everyone like us. We wage wars on each other because we are different, we pollute the environment, let homeless people and orphans wander the streets with no help, and try to maximise profit, even if that means getting underpaid labourers in China to produce things.