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The end Cretaceous mass extinction 65 million years ago is associated with the end of the dinosaurs. Virtually no large land animals survived. Plants were also affected and tropical marine life was decimated. At this time, the oceans flooded up to 40% of the continents. What would become us now had a chance to flourish. We were very small mammals and we had a lot of land to fill.

Of course the word 'opportunity' is, in this instance, a value-judgement. I would imagine that the organisms that were unable to adapt to the radically changing environments during past extinction waves would not have seen it as an opportune time at all. But, then, one man's death is often another man's bread, and there will always be those able to profit from even the most horrible disasters.

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11y ago

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