💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 🦖🌍 What if the #asteroid missed?

What would #Earth be like if #dinosaurs survived? #Mammals would remain small, #Trex could have lost its arms entirely, and #troodontids like the Stenonychosaurus might have evolved human-like #intelligence, with #humans never appearing.

👉 https://www.discoverwildlife.com/dinosaurs/if-dinosaurs-had-not-gone-extinct

#paleontology #evolution #cretaceous #science #biology #tyrannosaurus #triceratops #climatechange #climate #nature #history #bristol #palaeocene

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: A 12-meter tall T. rex named Gus goes up for #auction July 14 after a six-year excavation and lab prep process that started on a #SouthDakota cattle ranch. 🦴

There's an ongoing #debate about whether big #fossils belong in #museums or private collections. 💰

👉 https://www.popsci.com/science/gus-t-rex-auction/

#paleontology #trex #dinosaur #cretaceous #science #sothebys #naturalhistory #history #tyrannosaurus

🦖☄️ Paleontologist Michael Benton and meteoriticist Monica Grady reconstruct the final day of the #Cretaceous in real-time – from the silent #asteroid visible as a #star, to the fireball and incineration, to mega-tsunamis, global #wildfires, acid #rain, and a decade-long #winter that snuffed out three-quarters of #Earth’s species.

👉 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/27/dinosaur-killer-meteorite-impact-vivid-detail-terrawatch

#asteroid #dinosaurs #extinction #chicxulub #paleontology #meteorite #tsunami #climate #earthquake #volcano #science #mexico #fossils #geology

Feathered dragon has some of the longest tail feathers ever found on a fossil bird https://phys.org/news/2026-05-feathered-dragon-longest-tail-feathers.html

Hyperelongate ornamental tail feathers in a new early #Cretaceous enantiornithine bird https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0347641

"#Plumadraco was the size of an American robin, but its tail feathers were twice the length of its body... some of the proportionally longest tail feathers ever found in a fossil... #birds have been evolving costly, elongate, specialized features to attract mates for a long time"

🦖☄️ 66 million years ago, an #asteroid wiped out 75% of #Earth’s species. The survivors – small #birds, #mammals, #turtles, and #fish – shared key traits: a small body size, the ability to burrow or shelter in #water, and flexible diets. Researchers explain how size, diet, and luck determined who lived and who didn’t.

👉 https://www.livescience.com/animals/how-did-animals-survive-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs

#dinosaurs #extinction #paleontology #survival #evolution #cretaceous #science #animals #fossils #naturalhistory #nature #history