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Are Mammals Facing Extinction (Including Us)?

Life is indeed an adventure; make the most of it! But to say that we have to breed and spread the species is no exaggeration: data that comes from the studies done within the realm of palaeontology seem to suggest that the biodiversity of placental mammals - to which we belong - is dwindling down.

Among all vertebrates, bony fishes since the Jurassic, and birds since the Cretaceous are the only groups experiencing a significant growth in biodiversity, continuously and at a steady pace.

Non-placental mammals had their heyday during the Palaeocene, about sixty million years ago; placental mammals seem to have reached their maximum expansion in biodiversity during the Miocene, forty million years ago, counting both the number of species as well as individuals.

These days we find our whole group in a very long recession period which may have two possible outcomes: either placental mammals will cease to be the dominant group in about twenty million years ago, or the biodiversity will be recovered, much like what happened in the case of bony fishes before their Jurassic expansion. If placental mammals do not recover their rhythm of evolution, this might mean almost total extinction.

Birds are really dinosaurs, or at least their direct descendants, and they are advancing in every front; this simply means that given the present conditions in our world, birds are better adapted to long-term changes, while placental mammals seem to be in need of an overhaul, so to speak.

As we just wrote, if this does not happen in some time, the world will again be the kingdom of dinosaurs.

So, let's get busy breeding!

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