Did The Dinosaurs Die So Man Could Work The Day Shift?

As a kid I loved dinosaurs. I knew most of the names, where they lived, when they lived and at my age my kids wonder if I might not have been one of them!  Funny.

It’s interesting to think that an alleged “Extinction Event” for the dinosaurs was a major contributor to me getting up in the morning to go to work.

An article in the Los Angeles Times says mammals, including our mammal ancestors, were largely creatures of the night until the dinosaurs were killed off by an asteroid some 66 million years ago.

Scientists say they've found evidence that mammals remained nocturnal throughout the Mesozoic era --the Age of Reptiles - but a shift in behavior began among some mammal species the dinosaurs were wiped out.

The earliest mammals that became strictly daytime creatures included simian primates, somewhere around 52 million to 33 million years ago.

One possible reason for this was diet.  The mammals could move about by day and not have to work about being part of the dinosaur’s diet!  Scientists also believe the asteroid triggered the  emergence and spread of flowering plants and the insects  which also provided new opportunities for mammals to flourish.

It’s fascinating to consider evolution but difficult to square with religion so I’ll just close with this. Not once in all those years of playing with plastic dinos large and small, did I ever end my game with an asteroid strike!