Then 65 million years ago, environmental catastrophe drove the dinosaurs from their homes and left the last remnants of them to starve in bleak and unfamiliar surroundings, their adaptive capabilities overwhelmed by circumstance. But in socially networked animals with larger brains, catastrophes are creative opportunities. Mammals , freed from hiding in bodies smaller than a dino-snack and in holes and crevasses too narrow for a dino's claws, were challenged to let the full range of their flexibility run free. The five principles of the complex adaptive system aided the survival of these rodent-like creatures. Mammals like whales and bats, which appeared roughly 55 million years ago, have oodles of conformity enforcers, homogenizers which allow for common language and for the alignment of behavior between individuals.
Rats avoid a strange food until they smell it on the breath of a den-mate.
Then, assured by the survival of the poison-tester, they pounce on the previously suspicious morsel. This slavish timidity can save their lives. Squirrels also pool information, using their tail as a semaphore to signal trouble and to rally their companions. A twitching of this fur-fringed nether flag may mean there's a snake around and bring others running to the rescue. A team of squirrels can track and isolate a snake more effectively than one squirrel on her own.