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Adaptability has always been one of the striking characteristics of mammals; much more versatile than dinosaurs in their life requirements, they survived the massive extinction that happened 65 million years ago, known as the K-T event, which wiped out a great portion of all living species in our planet. Mammals already had evolved a great deal by then, side by side with dinosaurs and pterodactyls as one of three branches coming out of older reptilian orders and taxa, a process initiated more than 300 million years ago, during the Permian period.

However, it seems that dinosaurs wee initially faster to grasp the opportunity and occupied most of the ecological niches available at the time, while mammals only filled secondary roles. Probably that made mammals more intelligent and versatile; without prime resources at hand, these animals had to find the way to survive with more challenges than their generally bigger counterparts.

The adaptability of mammals is further demonstrated by another catastrophic event: at the end of the Permian, a mass extinction more massive than the K-T event took place, when dinosaurs were just beginning to be part of the plan of evolution, so to speak. The primitive beings that survived this disaster, known as cynodonts and represented by species like 'Procynosuchus' were not yet mammals, but on a straight and fast way to become them, and they already showed some characteristics.It is estimated by means of fossil records that at least 50% of all marine life and about 73% of land-based life forms disappeared.

During this event, some of the until then very common and successful species and orders disappeared, such as the trilobites that populated the planet since the beginning of the Cambrian. The causes of this disaster are not known; so far no indications as of its nature and mechanics has been found other that fossil records that show a somewhat sudden and massive disappearance of biomass.

The idea that a meteorite deadlier than the one that fell on Chixulub, Yucatan may have caused such an ecological catastrophe is one that is under consideration. So mammals survived not one but two apocalyptic events; thus, it can be said that mammals are better adapted to such changes in our world than most other kinds of life forms.

There are other long-term survivors, like sponges and brachiopods, but in general, these are rather primitive and simple organisms. When we look at ourselves in a mirror, or when we look at our pets we don't realise the fact that we have all been extremely fortunate because we belong to the group of animal that has demonstrated some of the best survival capabilities in the history of planet Earth.

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