I feel like the news is in the details here, that non-biologists won’t really understand or appreciate. Because as far as I know it’s not news that small mammals co-existed with dinosaurs.

I distinctly remember learning (as a kid) that mammals survived it because they were small, could breed often, and produced lots of offspring… so they could evolutionally adapt quickly.

Not precisely humans but the ancient placental mammal lineage that includes humans, dogs, and bats.

Obviously. That’s how evolution works. Everything alive today had an “ancestor” alive at the time of the dinosaurs, and before the time of the dinosaurs.

I guess the Flintstones predicted this one…

This is just true by definition of the word “ancestor”

”Not precisely humans but the ancient placental mammal lineage that includes humans, dogs, and bats.”

In one documentary, these mammals were depicted as four legged rat sized animals. Not something I would call humans, but I guess writers need to make living too.