According to recent research, when an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out all dinosaurs unrelated to birds, and more than half of all life on Earth, early relatives of primates and marsupials were early among the few animals living on trees that survived. Arboreal species were particularly weak to extinction as a result of worldwide destruction caused by flames that were started due to the asteroid’s impact.
AI models, fossil records, and information from living mammals were used in the study to show that most of the surviving mammals did not rely on trees. However, the few arboreal mammals that survived including human ancestors may have been adapted to survive without trees. Because of their psychological and physiological similarities to humans, thousands of nonhuman primates are utilized in the study across the world. Approximately 60% of monkey species are almost going extinct. Deforestation, monkey drives, and primate hunting for use in medicines, pets, and food are all common dangers. Primate populations are most threatened by large-scale tropical forest clearance for agriculture.
Primate social groupings include couples or family groups, uni-male harems, and multi-male/multi-female groups. Nonhuman primates are defined by the movement of teenage females between groups. Humans, certain other big apes, and baboons are the only exceptions to this rule, having abandoned the trees for the ground and now populate every continent.
The study indicates that this extinction event, known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, had an impact on the early evolution and variety of mammals. One suggested explanation for how primates survived over the K-Pg barrier while being arboreal is that they had considerable behavioral adaptability, which may have been a huge element in their survival.
The first mammals emerged around 300 million years ago and may have evolved in combination with a flowering plant expansion approximately 20 million years before the K-Pg event. Many of these animal lineages were wiped off when the asteroid was impacted.
The researchers utilized previously published phylogenies for mammals in the study. They then categorized each extant animal on those phylogenies into three groups depending on their preferred habitats: arboreal, semi-arboreal, and non-arboreal. They also created computer models that recreated mammalian evolution.
Mammal fossils from the K-Pg range are extremely uncommon and difficult to utilize in determining an animal’s habitat choice. To help offer context for their findings, the researchers compared information known from current animals to accessible fossils.
The illustrations showed that surviving species were mostly non-arboreal during the K-Pg event, with two only two survivors, primates and marsupials. In every hypothesis, primate ancestors and near relatives were discovered to be arboreal just before the K-Pg event. In half of the model restorations, marsupial ancestors were shown to be arboreal.
The researchers also looked at how animals as a group have changed over time. A primate is a kind of eutherian mammal that belongs to the taxonomic order of Primates. Primates evolved from terrestrial mammals that accommodated to living in the trees of forests around 85–55 million years ago. Many primate characteristics, such as large brains, sharp vision, color vision, a shoulder cord that allows a long movement in the shoulder joint, and skilled hands, are adaptations to life in this difficult environment.
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