It's the Engines on History Hit.

I'm Tristan Hughes, your host and in today's podcast.

Well, once again, we're going millions of years back in time, we're covering millions

of years.

We've done the dinosaurs in the past and we will do dinosaurs again.

We've done the origins of life too.

But today, we're talking all about mammals.

Yes, that extraordinary species are included, but we're going back, as mentioned, millions

of years to talk through the rise of the mammals.

How this rise predates the dinosaurs.

It predates the Triassic period more than 252 million years ago.

We're going beyond that.

Then we're also going to go through the Triassic, through the Jurassic, through the Cretaceous.

They managed to survive the meteorite extinction.

Then this truly became the reign of the mammals when you saw these incredible, huge, large

animals, for instance, of the ice age, saber toothed cats, woolly mammals and so much more.

We're going to be talking about all of that, but the specific focus on the early rise

of the mammals from predinosaurs to post-dinosaur because we've got the one and only, the best

amount for the job on this, none other than Professor Steve Brissatti from the University

of Edinburgh.

That name might ring a bell for a couple of reasons.

One, and of course the main reason, is because he's been on the ancient spot cast before.

...