African elephant and greater kudu at dawn, Chobe National Park, Botswana
A world fit for mammals... The first mammals evolved from reptiles at least 210 million years ago, but during their initial 145 million years they lived in the shadows of dinosaurs. Those early mammals are not well known, but most of them were probably small, nocturnal creatures. It was the demise of dinosaurs that triggered a spectacular diversification of mammals into the more than 4,000 species alive today. At an African waterhole I waited for the moment when a kudu passed behind an elephant to frame both as examples of different mammalian forms. |
