How Chewing May Have Beat Extinction

Video Description

Help understand what you enjoy and what you would want to see us make more of: https://to.pbs.org/2025SurveyEons 66 million years ago, after an asteroid slammed into the Earth and wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, the world became a dark wasteland. But among the survivors were two distantly-related groups of animals that, on the surface, seem to have nothing in common: tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles. They did share one important trait, though: the ability to chew their food. Really well. And it turns out, this strange ability might have helped them survive when the world almost ended. Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios. Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible: Perseus Bluejay, Mary Sammartino , Hugo van den Hoek, Melodie Chen-Glasser, rene fuqua, John Hildebrandt, Irene Wood, Derek Helling, Casey Hague, Susan Freund, CalamityBangs, Brian Clubb, William Sunderland, Kerry Conneely, Mark Talbott-Williams, Nomi Alchin, Nicholas Arger, Josh L, Duane Westhoff, Yu Mei, A.B. Heckert, Lea Nisay, Beth K, Eric Younge, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Elyssa, Albert Folsom, Alex Hackman, Ruth Orr, Steve Hill, Jennifer Courtemanche, Steven Kern, Jason Rostoker, Lianne Lairmore, John H. Austin, Jr., Walter Ray-Dulany, Eric Franklin, John D Elias, Willie, Gizmo, Nquiztor, Annemiek Arkema, Wookiee Henderson, Randall George, SKS PHD, John Celio, Eric Edwards, Karen Farrell, raus , Aaditya Mehta, IAmHere, Collin Dutrow, Beth-Ann Cheney, Travis Bauer, Sarah Grunow-Mau, Deanna Hernandez, Christopher Samuel, AllPizzasArePersonal, lyric1981, Mary Tevington, Kevin Lacson, Dan Caffee, Nick Ryhajlo, Nathan Paskett, Stephanie Schlea, Jeff Graham, Betsy Radley References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18qbwRPi7p9z6pEOE7ERqK19ExNthQ98a3LEEuxLp59w/edit?usp=sharing If you'd like to support the channel, head over to http://patreon.com/eons and pledge for some cool rewards! Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/pbseons.bsky.social #Eons