Jellyfish Pictures/HHMI Tangled Bank Studios via AP
This rendering shows an ancient Carsioptychus mammal from the PBS NOVA special, Rise of the Mammals. In this recreation, Carsioptychus coarctatus eats plants in a newly diversified forest, 300,000 years after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.
By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer
A remarkable trove of fossils from Colorado has revealed details of how mammals grew larger and plants evolved after the cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs.
The thousands of specimens let scientists trace that history over a span of 1 million years, a mere eyeblink in Earth’s lifespan.
Sixty-six million years ago, a large meteorite smashed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of southeastern Mexico. It unleashed broiling waves of heat and filled the sky with aerosols that blotted out…
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Exposing the Big Game 