MESOZOIC ERA (245-66 million years ago)
GEOLOGIC EVENTS
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Pangea the most recent of a series of supercontinents on Earth, formed about 270 million years ago and broke apart about 200 million years ago. At this time most of the dry land on Earth was joined into one huge landmass that covered nearly a third of the planet's surface. The giant ocean that surrounded the continent is known as Panthalassa.The movement of Earth's tectonic plates formed Pangaea and ultimately broke it apart. That is how Pangea broke apart.
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South America and Africa have moved toward their present day positions. South Africa is a continent in the western hemisphere connected to North America by the Isthmus(land that sticks out) of Panama. Africa is the second largest continent; located to the south of Europe and bordered to the west by the South Atlantic and to the east by the Indian Ocean.
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The Triassic geologic event is denoting the earliest period of the Mesozoic era, between the Permian and Jurassic periods. It was when palm like trees, ginkgo trees, and forests formed.In many ways, the Triassic was a time of transition. It was at this time that the world-continent of Pangaea existed, altering global climate and ocean circulation. The Triassic also follows the largest extinction event in the history of life, and so is a time when the survivors of that event spread and recolonized.
LIFE EVENTS
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A dinosaur is a fossil reptile of the Mesozoic era, often reaching an enormous size. Some dinosaurs were carnivores (meat-eaters) but most were herbivores (plant-eaters). This is true for all animal populations. In any food chain, there have to be more organisms at the lower levels of the chain because the transfer of food energy is inefficient and much of the energy is lost at each stage of the process.
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- A warm-blooded vertebrate animal of a class that is distinguished by the possession of hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for the nourishment of the young, and (typically) the birth of live young is a mammal.
- Mammals eat pretty much everything, apart from leaf detritus and mature tree wood. We’re looking at the four main types of mammalian diets; carnivore (eat meat), herbivore (eat plants), frugivore (eat fruits) and omnivore (a bit of everything).
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A Archaeopteryx bird is a reptilelike fossil bird of the genus Archaeopteryx, from the late Jurassic Period, having teeth and a long, feathered, vertebrate tail. Amazingly detailed Archaeopteryx fossils have been found in fine-grained Jurassic limestone in southern Germany. The bird is a Carnivore (meat-eater).Archaeopteryx is the oldest-known bird. Unlike modern-day birds, it had teeth, three claws on each wing, belly ribs, and a long, bony tail.
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Snakes are a long limbless reptile that has no eyelids, a short tail, and jaws that are capable of considerable extension. Some snakes have a venomous bite.Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Snakes capture various animals as prey. Many species eat only certain types of prey. Some hognose snakes, for example, eat almost exclusively toads. Water snakes prey mostly on fishes and frogs, and the tree-climbing rat snakes eat mainly birds and bird eggs. Rattlesnakes eat mainly small mammals such as rodents.
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The Mesozoic mass extinction ends the era. This Era was called "The Age of Reptiles".