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Remarkable fossils capture mammals’ recovery after the dino-killing asteroid

Survivors grew from the size of a rat to that of a wolf within 700,000 years of the impact

mammal skulls

Scientists have found 40 mammal skulls (a selection shown) so far at Corral Bluffs, a fossil site in Colorado that’s helping reveal how mammals thrived after an asteroid strike 66 million years ago.

HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

By John Pickrell

- More than 2 years ago

Understanding how life rebounded after an asteroid strike 66 million years ago, which wiped out up to 75 percent of Earth’s species and ended the dinosaurs’ reign, has been hard.