The authors of the new work scanned fossilized skulls to determine how mammalian
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago left behind mostly small creatures, from rodents that eat insects to herbivores that were the size of modern beavers.
Over time, these animals became larger and larger.Scientists for a long time thought that their brains also gradually increased, like the rest of the body. But a new study refutes that idea: the authors said brains were the last to start to enlarge.
Researchers analyzed 34 skullsmammals belonging to the Paleocene (65-55 million years ago) and Eocene (55-32 million years ago). They used computed tomography, which creates a digital 3D map of the skulls without damaging them. Next, they created a putative model of the brain. After that, the researchers compared the estimated brain and body sizes of mammals. It turned out that mammals began to increase in size immediately after the extinction of the dinosaurs, but brain growth did not begin until 10 million years later.
The study's findings provide strong evidence that body size and brain size are regulated differently.
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