Zala’s Reviews > The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us > Status Update
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Zala’s Previous Updates
Zala
is 68% done
”Darwin’s Ungulates persisted for well over 60 million years. They nearly made it to the present, but the last survivors were among the victims of the Ice Age extinctions around 10,000 years ago”
— 9 hours, 26 min ago
Zala
is 68% done
’They pointed to, in the words of Darwin’s opening paragraph, “relations of the present to the past inhabitants.” More than the finches, Darwin saw this continuity of mammal descent—“this wonderful relationship in the same continent between the dead and the living”—as the keystone evidence for his theory that species changed over time.’
— 9 hours, 31 min ago
Zala
is 59% done
”The delicate, paper-thin bones of Paleocene birds are found alongside the mammals in New Mexico, and these postextinction pioneers enjoyed their own run of success—culminating in the ten-thousand-plus species of birds that live today, around twice the number of mammal species!”
— Jan 19, 2026 02:08PM
Zala
is 47% done
”Caldwell conscripted 150 Aboriginal people to slaughter as many platypuses as they could find, along with another furry Australian oddity that was purported to lay eggs: the spiny echidnas. It was imperialistic science at its worst: some fourteen hundred animals were killed, and the Aboriginal peoples were horribly mistreated.”
— Jan 19, 2026 12:40PM
Zala
is 20% done
”Next time you chip (or lose) a tooth and need expensive dental work, you can curse your Triassic ancestors.”
thank you, I will
— Jan 19, 2026 11:49AM
thank you, I will
Zala
is 15% done
”Temperatures increased by about 9 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (5–8 degrees Celsius) within a few tens of thousands of years—similar to what is happening today, although actually at a slower pace than modern warming (a fact that should give everyone reading this pause).”
well yikes
— Jan 19, 2026 11:49AM
well yikes
