Episode 6.7 · 28 min
how mammals, birds, climate and continents reshaped the world in the 64 million years after the dino
How did the world change after the dinosaurs vanished—and why did no single future become inevitable? Over the next 64 million years, mammals and birds diversified, some grew enormous, bats took to the air, and land mammals became whales, while carbon release, cooling, grass expansion, shifting continents and spreading ice repeatedly reorganized habitats. Primates were already part of this branching history, ready for the next chapter.
Watch this film on YouTube ↗Visual credits
27 sourcesSources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.
Natural Earth 1:50m coastline
Natural Earth contributors; Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domainRendered as map geometry.
Natural Earth 1:50m Admin 0 countries
Natural Earth contributors; Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domainRendered as map geometry.
Gastornis, a large flightless bird from the Eocene of Wyoming
Vince Smith from London, United Kingdom
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 2.0Reframed.
Pakicetus attocki skeleton
Ghedo
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Reframed.
Ashfall Fossil Beds - Teleoceras adult male
Ammodramus
View original source ↗Source licence: CC0Reframed.
Skeleton of Dorudon atrox
Momotarou2012
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0Reframed.
Ashfall Fossil Beds - Teleoceras and Cormohipparion
Ammodramus
View original source ↗Source licence: CC0Reframed.
Neohipparion affine (slender three-toed horse) in volcanic tuff (Ash Hollow Formation, Miocene, 11.83 Ma; Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska, USA) 4
James St. John
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.0Reframed.
Acritohippus isonesus (fossil horse) (Sheep Creek Formation, Middle Miocene; Sheep Creek, Nebraska, USA) 3 (31659469654)
James St. John
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.0Reframed.
Eurohippus messelensis mare SMF-ME-11034 — Franzen Figure 2
Sven Tränkner / Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut Frankfurt; Jens L. Franzen, Christine Aurich and Jörg Habersetzer
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BYReframed.
Icaronycteris FBM - Rietbergen et al 2023
Tim B. Rietbergen, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Arvid Aase, Matthew F. Jones, Edward D. Medeiros and Nancy B. Simmons
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0Reframed.
Skeletal mounts - The age of mammals in Europe, Asia and North America (1910) (17757255360) (cropped)
H. F. Osborn (1910); digitized by Smithsonian Libraries / Internet Archive Book Images; original photographer not identified
View original source ↗Source licence: No known copyright restrictions (Commons / Internet Archive Book Images source statement)Source crop reframed.
Hapalops ruetimeyeri skeleton (cropped)
Bloopityboop
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Reframed.
Propalaehoplophorus AMNH
Jonathan Chen
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Reframed.
Horse posing in the grass
Joselodos
View original source ↗Source licence: CC0Reframed.
Plains zebra Equus quagga
Jozef020
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Reframed.
A donkey standing
Zak Raha
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Reframed.
ODP actual core archive photograph 208-1262C-5H-4
Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 208 Shipboard Scientific Party / Texas A&M archive
View original source ↗Source licence: ODP reuse policy: acknowledgment requestedRotated and reframed; ruler and core ID retained.
Ocean Drilling Program requests acknowledgment.
XN Myotis daubentonii 157
Guido Gerding
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0Reframed.
Dinosaur coprolite (Morrison Formation, Upper Jurassic; Henry Mountains, Utah, USA)
James St. John
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.0Reframed.
Nesodon imbricatus skeleton reconstruction
William Berryman Scott
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domainReframed.
Antarctic araucarian leafy branch DJ.1103.189 — clean Fig.5a crop
J. E. Francis, A. Ashworth, D. J. Cantrill, J. A. Crame, J. Howe, R. Stephens, A.-M. Tosolini and V. Thorn
Cropped to Figure 5a; labels and scale retained; panel b excluded.
Maiacetus inuus — isolated side-profile drawing, Gingerich 2009 Figure 1 panel D
Philip D. Gingerich, Munir ul-Haq, Wighart von Koenigswald, William J. Sanders, B. Holly Smith and Iyad S. Zalmout
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BYCropped to Figure 1 panel D; label, skeleton and scale retained.
Nuttallides truempyi — isolated ventral SEM Fig.4 view1a
Gabriela J. Arreguín-Rodríguez, Ellen Thomas, Simon D’haenens, Robert P. Speijer and Laia Alegret
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BYCropped to Figure 4 specimen 1a; label and scale retained.
CENOGRID S34 benthic-isotope reference splice
Thomas Westerhold
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0Plotted as an inverted proxy curve.
CenCO2PIP v1.02 product workbooks
CenCO2PIP Consortium
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0Filtered and aggregated into a 500-kyr CO2 curve.
PALEOMAP PaleoDEM v2 grids (0-65 Ma)
Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky Wright
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0Rendered as maps/globes.
_in_volcanic_tuff_(Ash_Hollow_Formation,_Miocene,_11.83_Ma;_Ashfall_Fossil_Beds,_Nebraska,_USA)_4.jpg){kind=link}
_(Sheep_Creek_Formation,_Middle_Miocene;_Sheep_Creek,_Nebraska,_USA)_3_(31659469654).jpg){kind=link}
_(17757255360)_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
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Research references
Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.
- Lyson 2019 ↗
- Smith et al. ↗
- primary study ↗
- Stiller et al. 2024 ↗
- Wu et al. 2024 ↗
- DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2022.88 ↗
- study ↗
- Mayr et al. 2025 ↗
- Gutjahr et al. 2017 ↗
- Berndt et al. 2023 ↗
- Röhl et al. 2007 ↗
- Tierney et al. 2022 ↗
- Inglis et al. 2026 ↗
- Zeebe et al. ↗
- GCB final paper ↗
- Rietbergen et al. 2023 ↗
- Morales et al. 2026 ↗
- Gingerich et al. 2001, Origin of whales from early artiodactyls ↗
- skeleton study ↗
- Thewissen et al. 2007 ↗
- PLOS paper ↗
- Lambert et al. 2019 ↗
- Hutchinson et al. 2021 ↗
- CenCO2PIP 2023 ↗
- Global and regional climate change impacted Paleogene mammal faunas in Central Asia, 2026 ↗
- Prasad et al. 2005 ↗
- Texas Data Repository ↗
- Edwards et al. 2010 ↗
- Karp et al. 2018 ↗
- MacFadden 2005 ↗
- Semprebon, Rivals and Janis 2019 ↗
- Mihlbachler et al. 2011 ↗
- Strömberg et al. 2013 ↗
- Ashfall ↗
- Ward 2025 ↗
- Straume et al. 2025 ↗
- O'Dea et al. 2016 ↗
- Montes et al. 2015 ↗
- McClymont and Ho et al. 2023 ↗
- Gelasian/Pleistocene/Quaternary base is 2.58 Ma ↗
- McNulty, Begun & Kelley 2025 ↗
- Collection 917503 ↗
- Version 1.02, December 2024 ↗
- figshare v1 ↗
- Fig. 1 ↗
- Fig. 3 ↗
- Gingerich/University of Michigan research page ↗
- NERC data ↗
- PLOS article ↗
- WoRMS ↗
- UNESCO Wadi Al-Hitan ↗
- 57:46 Corral Bluffs lecture ↗
- 8:52 specimen introduction ↗
- 7:35 Ashfall video ↗
- Smith laboratory copy ↗
- institutional author PDF ↗
- open anatomical study of *Periptychus* ↗
- Prum et al. 2015 ↗
- Berv et al. 2024 ↗
- 2025 perspective ↗
- Cambridge source-owner account ↗
- primary abstract ↗
- Bowen et al. 2015 ↗
- Smithsonian author copy ↗
- Kirtland Turner 2018 ↗
- Haynes and Hönisch 2020 ↗
- Zeebe's EGU25-7526 abstract ↗
- Makarova et al. 2025 ↗
- institutional full-text copy ↗
- Bighorn Basin paleosol study ↗
- institutional record ↗
- 2025 regional study ↗
- Secord et al. 2012 ↗
- Zenodo mixing-model code ↗
- LORE ↗
- PANGAEA age model ↗
- Friedlingstein et al., Global Carbon Budget 2025 ↗
- GCP data hub ↗
- Kirtland Turner 2017 ↗
- Kirtland Turner 2018 ↗
- primary abstract ↗
- Gingerich 2019 ↗
- Simmons et al. 2008 ↗
- Veselka et al. 2010 ↗
- Simmons et al.'s response ↗
- *Australonycteris* study record ↗
- Hand et al. 2023 ↗
- Nature DOI 10.1038/s41586-026-11007-3 ↗
- Dryad 10.5061/dryad.1rn8pk187 ↗
- NHM discovery account ↗
- institutional full text ↗
- Thewissen et al. 2009, From Land to Water ↗
- Thewissen and Fish 1997, Locomotor evolution in the earliest cetaceans ↗
- author's publication index ↗
- Nummela et al. 2004 ↗
- Nummela et al. 2007 ↗
- Roe et al. 1998, Isotopic evidence for marine habitats and diets of Eocene whales ↗
- Clementz et al. 2006, Isotopic records from early whales and sea cows ↗
- institutional PDF ↗
- Antar et al. 2023, *Tutcetus* ↗
- Motani and Pyenson 2024 ↗
- Subsequent volumetric reassessment ↗
- Berger et al. 2025, protocetid endocranial anatomy ↗
- ecospace/disparity study ↗
- https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[355:IRFEWA ↗
- https://library.naturalsciences.be/pdfs-open-access/2019/lambert-et-al_2019_amphibious-whale-from-middle-eocene-of-peru.pdf/at_download/file): ↗
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04986-w): ↗
- DeConto and Pollard 2003 ↗
- 2005 stepwise ice/compensation-depth study ↗
- British Antarctic Survey's Seymour Island study ↗
- Anderson et al. 2011 ↗
- 2023 artiodactyl turnover analysis ↗
- Ebro Basin chronology ↗
- Figueirido et al. 2015 ↗
- 2026 Antarctic penguin synthesis ↗
- PANGAEA series ↗
- vetted data ↗
- SPATIAL-Lab/CenoCO2 ↗
- BAS fossil wood/leaf dataset ↗
- BAS project imagery ↗
- Prasad et al. 2011 ↗
- Strömberg 2005 ↗
- 2011 synthesis ↗
- Peppe et al., Science 380, 173–177 ↗
- Jacobs and colleagues' 2025 study ↗
- 2022 spatial reconstruction ↗
- Andrae et al. 2018 ↗
- Cerling et al. 1997 ↗
- Australian work ↗
- Lukens research page ↗
- Florida Museum Thomas Farm discussion ↗
- Archaeohippus specimen page ↗
- Megahippus ↗
- NPS Hagerman species page ↗
- 2023 hipparion review ↗
- Strömberg 2006 ↗
- Jardine et al. 2012, institutional PDF ↗
- Palazzesi and Barreda 2012 ↗
- McHorse, Biewener and Pierce's 2019 review ↗
- Cantalapiedra et al. 2017 ↗
- 2025 volcanogenic-lake review ↗
- author data ↗
- 1:39 site item ↗
- fossil-to-bronze work ↗
- https://doi.org/10.1666/0094-8373(2006)32%5B236:EOHIET%5D2.0.CO;2 ↗
- Todrani et al. 2022 ↗
- 2025 collision reassessment ↗
- author PDF ↗
- Smithsonian repository ↗
- Coates/Stallard's response ↗
- Bourke et al. 2025 ↗
- Farmer et al. 2025 ↗
- Woodburne 2010 ↗
- Carrillo et al. 2020 ↗
- Hirschfeld and Webb's museum monograph ↗
- Moss Acres ↗
- Tarquini et al. 2017 ↗
- Soibelzon et al. 2019 ↗
- Eldrett et al. 2007 ↗
- Tripati and Darby 2018 ↗
- Bierman et al. 2016 ↗
- 2025 Northeast Greenland shelf work ↗
- PANGAEA dataset ↗
- Te Papa taxon record ↗
- Kikuchi 2023 ↗
- anatomical study ↗
- Table S33 splice ↗
- Table S34 binned/LOESS ↗
- Workbook download ↗
- notebook ↗
- EarthByte source archive ↗
Music
- Meditation From The Star Orion
OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements
Footage and image usage
Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.
- Ammodramus
- Bloopityboop
- CenCO2PIP Consortium - source: Original source ↗
- Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky Wright - source: Original source ↗
- Gabriela J. Arreguín-Rodríguez, Ellen Thomas, Simon D’haenens, Robert P. Speijer and Laia Alegret - source: Original source ↗
- Ghedo
- Guido Gerding - source: Original source ↗
- H. F. Osborn (1910); digitized by Smithsonian Libraries / Internet Archive Book Images; original photographer not identified
- J. E. Francis, A. Ashworth, D. J. Cantrill, J. A. Crame, J. Howe, R. Stephens, A.-M. Tosolini and V. Thorn
- James St. John - source: Original source ↗
- Jonathan Chen
- Joselodos - source: Original source ↗
- Jozef020 - source: Original source ↗
- Momotarou2012 - source: Original source ↗
- Natural Earth contributors; Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso - sources: Original source ↗ Original source ↗
- Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 208 Shipboard Scientific Party / Texas A&M archive - source: Original source ↗
- Philip D. Gingerich, Munir ul-Haq, Wighart von Koenigswald, William J. Sanders, B. Holly Smith and Iyad S. Zalmout - source: Original source ↗
- Sven Tränkner / Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut Frankfurt; Jens L. Franzen, Christine Aurich and Jörg Habersetzer - source: Original source ↗
- Thomas Westerhold - source: Original source ↗
- Tim B. Rietbergen, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Arvid Aase, Matthew F. Jones, Edward D. Medeiros and Nancy B. Simmons - source: Original source ↗
- Vince Smith from London, United Kingdom
- William Berryman Scott
- Zak Raha - source: Original source ↗
- Original animations and figures created by this channel.
- Ammodramus — 24:16-24:19, 24:27-24:31
- Bloopityboop — 25:23-25:24
- CenCO2PIP Consortium — 16:54-17:06
- Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky Wright — 2:46-2:49, 2:54-3:00, 3:07-3:13, 21:20-21:53, 22:02-22:12, 26:32-26:38, 26:47-26:50, 26:50-26:58
- Gabriela J. Arreguín-Rodríguez, Ellen Thomas, Simon D’haenens, Robert P. Speijer and Laia Alegret — 8:45-8:53
- Ghedo — 13:31-13:37
- Guido Gerding — 12:03-12:11
- H. F. Osborn (1910); digitized by Smithsonian Libraries / Internet Archive Book Images; original photographer not identified — 4:28-4:36
- J. E. Francis, A. Ashworth, D. J. Cantrill, J. A. Crame, J. Howe, R. Stephens, A.-M. Tosolini and V. Thorn — 10:38-10:44
- James St. John — 23:45-23:51, 24:19-24:21, 19:54-19:59
- Jonathan Chen — 25:24-25:25
- Joselodos — 24:54-25:02
- Jozef020 — 24:56-25:02
- Momotarou2012 — 16:30-16:38
- Natural Earth contributors; Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso — 12:27-12:34, 15:05-15:15
- Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 208 Shipboard Scientific Party / Texas A&M archive — 8:37-8:45
- Philip D. Gingerich, Munir ul-Haq, Wighart von Koenigswald, William J. Sanders, B. Holly Smith and Iyad S. Zalmout — 14:46-14:56
- Sven Tränkner / Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut Frankfurt; Jens L. Franzen, Christine Aurich and Jörg Habersetzer — 22:12-22:24, 22:25-22:36
- Thomas Westerhold — 1:36-1:42, 1:58-2:06, 2:38-2:49, 2:54-3:00, 3:07-3:13, 6:09-6:25, 10:26-10:36, 16:47-16:54, 18:35-18:50, 26:25-26:32, 26:32-26:38, 26:47-26:50, 26:50-26:58
- Tim B. Rietbergen, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Arvid Aase, Matthew F. Jones, Edward D. Medeiros and Nancy B. Simmons — 10:54-11:22, 11:51-12:03
- Vince Smith from London, United Kingdom — 6:04-6:09
- William Berryman Scott — 25:25-25:30
- Zak Raha — 24:57-25:02
How this film was made
Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.
Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.
More about the creator and production →