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submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] KillingAndKindess 36 points 7 months ago

Mammals only got yeeted to their own evolutionary tree branch 40 million years prior to those that would be considered reptilian (sorta dinos too) which was somewhere in the realm of 250 million years ago.

Meaninng the reptiles of today are ~5x further apart in time from dinosaurs, than dinosaurs are from their common ancestors to mammals.

I think we really should just not bother thinking in terms of current speciation concepts. They could have had jellyfish like tentacles dangling allover their skin and we'd never know.

[-] Zoop@beehaw.org 4 points 7 months ago

Mammals only got yeeted to their own evolutionary tree branch 40 million years prior to those that would be considered reptilian (sorta dinos too) which was somewhere in the realm of 250 million years ago.

As someone who was raised and taught to believe that the earth was only a few thousand years old (by 'that kind' of Christians/churches,) this still blows my mind to read! I've known what I was taught was bullshit for at least around fifteen years, but it's like my little pea brain still just cannot compute it. Wild stuff!!