This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. This will just take a minute.

You'd think that the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago with enough force to wipe out the dinosaurs

would be a tough thing to sleep through.

But a new study suggests that the ability to engage in extended hibernation

might be what saved ancestral mammals from extinction at the end of the

Cretaceous. The hypothesis is in the proceedings of the Royal Society B. It's thought that

global wildfires engulfed the planet for a year or more after the Chixiloop impact.

That's a long time to stay out of harm's way.

Small mammals most likely burrowed underground, but could they last that long without coming

up for air?

Yes, if they were hibernating. We know

that bears can sleep through winter, but bunny-sized Madagascar mammals called

10 wrecks have got that beat. Researchers tag two dozen 10-rex with devices that recorded their body temps and then released them back into the wild.

Most of the Tenerks got killed by dogs or snakes or poachers, but a couple tunneled into the sand where they proceeded to snooze until the researchers dug them up,

nine months later.

Wake up!

The findings reveal that on occasion, the best way to make it through a crisis is to just take a long nap.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans, 60 Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins.