The removal of any real competition on land left the dinosaurs essentially in charge. Extinctions destroy life, but they also reset the conditions for life’s evolution. The Jurassic period that followed is famous for the book and movies named for it, even if not all the creatures featured in Jurassic Park lived during that interval. But the Jurassic period is indeed the time when dinosaurs rose to prominence—achieving dominance over the ecosystem on land by the late Jurassic. Flying reptiles, crocodiles, turtles, and lizards multiplied in this period and mammals evolved too, though their days
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