If you love these little furry creatures, you will need the information contained in this site.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about hamsters is how they run on the wheels that we provide them with if they become our pets. But for us here at Andinia, hamsters also remind us that we, and all mammals were one day little more that these small rodents.

Today mammals are a dominant group in the world; not in number, indeed, because insects and arthropods in general are the most numerous, but mammals enjoy nevertheless a level of group dominance that is similar to that of the dinosaurs, mammals are everywhere; they are adaptable and have high survivability due to the characteristics of their bodies and the adaptability provided by large brains. Thus, despite being less numerous than other animals, mammals manage to impose themselves in most food chains and environments.

But as we said, this was not always the case: according to actual interpretations in palaeontology, mammals evolved from a group of small carnivorous reptiles known as cynodonts. These, during the late Triassic period evolved rapidly and in about 35 million years developed all mammal characteristics. Cynodonts appeared during the Permian; our oldest common ancestor to all mammals is 'Procynosuchus', a cynodont reptile that already shows some mammal characteristics in its body structure.

Then came other species with names like 'Trinaxodon,' 'Cynognathus,' 'Diademodon' and 'Probelesodon,' which paved the way for the apparition of the first proper mammal.

'Morganucodon' is the name of the first animal that can be positively identified as a mammal in all its characteristics; it was found in China and Europe, and was a small, furry creature similar in shape and appearance to modern rodents. Thus, we can say that mammals evolved at the roughly same time as dinosaurs, albeit for a long period of time, these reptiles became dominant and occupied key niches within the wrold's ecosystem.

They remained unchallenged until the K-T event that wiped them out, as well as many other species and groups. Mammals, however, survived, and there are many possible explanations for this higher survivability.

But it is likely that survival of the whole group depended on the characteristics developed by cynodonts and early mammals that made them less vulnerable to catastrophic environmental by superior adaptability. Mammals could take care of their offspring, could also survive on different diets, were smaller, requiring less energy, had better mobility due to a higher metabolic rate, and developed a larger brain which by the way, was better protected by cranial bones.

Being warm-blooded also could help a lot, not only because in this way mammals could be more active and better use the day, but also because that would have made them less dependent on weather and climate. So these small changes really proved to be fundamental.

In the end, the hamster won over the tyrannosaurus.

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