kno deal about tified (almost  a quarter of times as long as mammalsive of species or ibly apt cliché).

    For millions of years t a single fossil  been found.

    Even for te Cretaceous—t studied preoric period to our long interest in dinosaurs and tinction—some ters of allspecies t lived may yet be undiscovered. Animals bulkier tyrannosaurus may . Until very recently everyt t ting just sixteen species. tiness ofto t dinosaurs  already  occurred.

    In te 1980s a paleontologist from ter So conduct an experiment. Using t also ionin Montana. Sifting meticulously, teers collected every last tootebra andc ook t tripled total of dinosaurfossils from te Cretaceous. tablis dinosaurs remained numerousrigo time of t impact. “to believe t t gradually during t taceous,” Sed.

    e are so used to tion of our oability as life’s dominant species t it iso grasp t raterrestrial bangs and ot for nearly fourbillion years our ancestors o slip timeo. Step succinctly in a icular line never fractured—never once at any of ts t could ory.”

    e started ter s: Life s to be; life doesn’t al to bemucime to time goes extinct. to ten, as  are decidedly amazing.