The Danian (also known as the Montian) is the first stage of the Paleocene Epoch, making up the Early Paleocene sub-epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma (million years ago). The stage ended 61.7 ± 0.2 Ma.Though the non-avian dinosaurs were gone, the mammals, and other land animals remained small, none bigger than a large domestic cat. But most of the mammals' orders already had appeared. Numerous lineages of modern b… (More on Danian)