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Dinosaurs Were Faster Than Triassic Monotreme Mammals
Dinosaurs were able to walk and run faster than early Triassic monotreme mammals. The extant and fossil monotreme body plans, with their splayed reptilian pectoral girdles and mammalian pelvic girdles, and the extant monotreme low walking locomotion style, suggests that all early mammals walked like modern monotremes. As a result, monotremes could not move as fast as dinosaurs. Strong competition from the faster dinosaurs likely forced mammals to be active at night, sleep in the day, and live in secluded areas such as underground burrows, wetlands, forest woody debris and forest canopies.
The nocturnal, burrowing and seclusive lifestyles, of the extant
Platypus and Echidna monotremes, provide supporting evidence for this
scenario.
Although dinosaurs did not cause the extinction of mammals, they may have caused the end Triassic
extinctions of Cynodont and Therapsid mammal like reptiles, and Protodinosaur-Thecodonts. Alternatively, the end Triassic extinctions may have been caused by the extreme volcanic activity that occurred during that period.
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