After the asteroid hit, there was probably no one thing that sealed the dinosaurs’ fate. They just had a lot of liabilities working against them. Being small, or having an omnivorous diet, or reproducing quickly—none of these things guaranteed survival, but each one increased the odds in what was probably a maelstrom of chance as the Earth devolved into a fickle casino. If life in that moment boiled down to a game of cards, dinosaurs were left holding a dead man’s hand. Some species, however, cashed in on a royal flush. Among them were our mouse-size ancestors, which made it to the other side
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