I wrote a coffee table photobook that includes scientific illustrations of a mammals, starting from the emergence of the mammaliaform (~193 million years ago) to ancestral apes (~10 million years ago). The similarities between Mixodectes at 62 Ma, the shrew-like mammal at 66 Ma, and that early mammalian predecessor at 193 Ma are a fine example of how slow evolution can be when ecological niches are otherwise occupied.
After the Chicxulub asteroid landed, it left us with an enigma: Why didn't reptiles rise again to fill those niches? PBS Eons has a video exploring the theory and the impacts of fungi on natural selection in the asteroid's wake.
https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
After the Chicxulub asteroid landed, it left us with an enigma: Why didn't reptiles rise again to fill those niches? PBS Eons has a video exploring the theory and the impacts of fungi on natural selection in the asteroid's wake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPXbSx17030