LOXOLOPHUS

Button 1 - This long tailed mammal’s name is Loxolophus and he first appeared approximately 300,000 years after the K-T extinction. He may not look like it, but Loxolophus is one of the earliest known relatives of modern cows, deer and other hoofed mammals.

Button 2 - Loxolophus spent a majority of their time up in trees searching for food. Notice his lengthy tail? Loxolophus may have used it to hold onto  branches of trees, similar to modern day monkeys. Being up in the canopy also helped them to avoid predators which primarily prowled on the ground below.

Button 3 - Burrows such as this one played a very important role in the survival of mammals after the extinction event. Small mammals were able to go underground to escape the searing heat that wiped out all larger dinosaurs. After several days of the scorching heat, the Earth’s surface temperature returned to bearable levels and the mammals were able to emerge from their burrows unharmed.

Button 4 - After the extinction event, Earth would have been a barren wasteland with little food resources. Mammals, however, were omnivores and could eat insects and aquatic plants which also survived the asteroid strike. As the remaining dinosaurs died away, mammals began to flourish, leading to the rise of mammals in all parts of our planet.