The Day the Dinosaurs Died… and the Night We Survived

66 million years ago, an asteroid ten kilometres (six miles) wide ended the age of the dinosaurs in a single day. This is the story of that day, and of the tiny mammal, lighter than a hen's egg, that lived through the night. Thirty days before impact, the dinosaurs had no idea. And beneath the roots, something small was waking up. We follow the last weeks of the age of dinosaurs from the ground: Alamosaurus and Ankylosaurus in the north, Carnotaurus and the titanosaurs in Patagonia, Quetzalcoatlus wading through shallow lakes, Mosasaurus emptying the seas, and Tyrannosaurus rex choosing which fights were worth it. Then the night the sky caught fire, the tsunami that circled the planet, and the years of darkness that wiped out three quarters of all species. And through all of it, one tiny animal: Purgatorius, one of the earliest members of the primate family tree. It survived not by being fast or strong, but by being small. Where the evidence is debated, we say so. Whether Purgatorius was a true primate is still argued. How long the darkness lasted comes from climate models, and the exact figures vary. The Tanis site in North Dakota is extraordinary, and some of its interpretations are contested. Measurements are given in metric, with US equivalents on screen. CHAPTERS 0:00 Thirty days left 1:06 The last giants of the north 2:41 Quetzalcoatlus: a flyer as tall as a giraffe 4:01 Patagonia: Carnotaurus and the titanosaurs 5:41 The sleeping dragon 6:16 Fishing like a giant heron 8:06 Seas ruled by reptiles 10:10 Acheroraptor and the king 12:46 Hunters in the dark 14:46 The last normal night 15:31 Five hours from Earth 17:51 The wave 19:16 The spring that never came 20:26 Small enough to survive SOURCES Collins, G. S. et al. (2020). Nature Communications 11, 1480. Fischer-Gödde, M. et al. (2024). Science 385, 752–756. Range, M. M. et al. (2022). AGU Advances 3, e2021AV000627. Robertson, D. S. et al. (2004). GSA Bulletin 116, 760–768. Senel, C. B. et al. (2023). Nature Geoscience 16, 1033–1040. DePalma, R. A. et al. (2019). PNAS 116, 8190–8199. During, M. A. D. et al. (2022). Nature 603, 91–94. Vajda, V. & McLoughlin, S. (2004). Science 303, 1489. Tschudy, R. H. et al. (1984). Science 225, 1030–1032. Chester, S. G. B. et al. (2015). PNAS 112, 1487–1492. Wilson Mantilla, G. P. et al. (2021). Royal Society Open Science 8, 210050. Field, D. J. et al. (2018). Current Biology 28, 1825–1831. Field, D. J. et al. (2020). Nature 579, 397–401. Padian, K. et al. (2021). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41 (sup1). Witton, M. P. & Naish, D. (2008). PLoS ONE 3, e2271. Hendrickx, C. & Bell, P. R. (2021). Cretaceous Research 128, 104994. Chiappe, L. M. et al. (1998). Nature 396, 258–261. Xu, X. & Norell, M. A. (2004). Nature 431, 838–841. Brown, C. M. et al. (2017). Current Biology 27, 2514–2521. Riede, T. et al. (2016). Evolution 70, 1734–1746. Peterson, J. E., Dischler, C. & Longrich, N. R. (2013). PLoS ONE 8, e68620. O'Keefe, F. R. & Chiappe, L. M. (2011). Science 333, 870–873. DePalma, R. A. et al. (2013). PNAS 110, 12560–12564. Evans, D. C., Larson, D. W. & Currie, P. J. (2013). Naturwissenschaften 100, 1041–1049. Lamanna, M. C. et al. (2014). PLoS ONE 9, e92022. Primal Age tells the story of where we came from, one documentary at a time. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Narration and visuals are AI-assisted reconstructions. Script, research and editorial decisions are our own. #dinosaurs #asteroid #documentary