How did mammals come to rule the world?

About 325 million years ago, when Britain sat near the equator as
part of the supercontinent Pangaea, two populations of a small,
scaly, swamp-dwelling creature separated from each other. One of
these lineages, over millions and millions of years, evolved into
mammals. Our ancestors shared the planet with dinosaurs, survived
an asteroid and made it through an ice age. This fascinating
history is documented in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, a new
book by the palaeontologist Prof Steve Brusatte. The Guardian
science correspondent Nicola Davis talks to Madeleine Finlay about
her visit with Brusatte and what she learned about the strange
mammals that once walked the Earth. What might their past reveal
about their future in a rapidly changing world?. Help support our
independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod