Reptiles' 10,000-Mile "Dead Zone" Trek Led to Dinosaur Evolution

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Tiny reptiles crossed 10,000 miles of scorching terrain that scientists once thought was too hostile for any life to survive.

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Scientists have discovered that dinosaur ancestors were far tougher than anyone imagined, migrating across Earth's most extreme environments.

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252 million years ago, Earth suffered its worst mass extinction, killing 80% of marine species and half of all land animals.

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Among the survivors were small lizard-like creatures called archosauromorphs - nothing like the massive dinosaurs they would later evolve into.

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What made these reptiles special? They could tolerate extreme heat and drought that created "dead zones" across ancient Pangea.

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Using a new computer model called TARDIS, researchers tracked how these animals moved across prehistoric Earth despite gaps in the fossil record.

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Our results suggest these reptiles were much hardier to the extreme climate," explains Dr. Flannery-Sutherland from University of Birmingham.

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This climate resilience gave archosauromorphs a crucial advantage that helped them dominate the Triassic world and eventually evolve into dinosaurs.

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The discovery challenges previous theories that dinosaurs simply outcompeted other reptiles - climate adaptation played a major role.

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What scientists once thought were barriers to life may actually have been challenging corridors that shaped the course of evolution on our planet.

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