Mesozoic Life

MESOZOIC LIFE
The Mesozoic era began about 225 million years ago

and lasted some 160 million years.
It is subdivided into three periods, Triassic (190-225),
Jurassic (136-190) and Cretaceous (65-136).
During the Triassic, most of the continental areas were
above water, climate was dry and warm.
The pteridophytes and seed ferns declined in
number.
Gymnosperms increased very much.
The cycads appeared and flourished along with
conifers and formed large forests.
 New types of sponges and protozoan appeared.
 Modern echinoids and crinoids first appeared
in Triassic.
Trilobites became completely extinct.
Fossil remains of crocodile like reptiles have
been found in this period.
The Triassic dinosaurs varied in size from sheep
to a horse.
The Jurassic plant life was far more luxuriant
than in the Triassic.
A thousand or more species of insects are known
from this period.
Most of the modern orders like termites,
grasshoppers, cockroaches, caddis flies, bees,
wasps, ants, and beetles were represented.
There was abundant increase in numbers and
variety of radiolarians, echinoids, crinoids,
gastropods and pelycepods.
One of the important feature of this period is the
appearance of modern bony fishes, the teleosts.
radiolarians echinoids crinoids
 There were three main dinosaur groups in Jurassic
1) Sauropods
2) Stegosaurs
3) Therapods
 Flying and aquatic reptiles were also numerous.
 The Jurassic period also saw the beginning of birds and
mammals that were later to establish their dominance.
 Excellent fossils of primitive birds Archaeopteryx and
Archaeornis have been discovered from the Jurassic period.
 Similarly a number of rat sized mammalian fossils have
been found from Europe and U.S.A during this period.
 Cretaceous period lasted some 70 millions years.
 It was on of the most important of all geological
periods, marked by a major advance of the sea in
many parts of the world.
 Towards the close of this period earth movements
produced mountain ranges which are now the
Andes, and north eastern Asia (Himalayas).
 The Cretaceous period is marked with 2 important
events.
1) Sudden rise of flowering plants.
2) widespread extinction of dinosaurs towards its end.
On the whole, the most outstanding feature of
the Mesozoic era was the origin, development,
and differentiation of a great variety of reptiles.
 Hence this era is referred as Golden age of
reptiles.
 This era witnessed the largest and bizarre shaped
animals that have ever lived on this earth.
Brontosaurus, a herbivorous dinosaur having
a length of 20m and weight of 50 tons
Stegosaurus, dinosaur with a double fringe of huge
triangular plates on its back; tail armed with spine;
length 15m and weight 14 tons
Triceratops, horned dinosaur; had 1 metre long
horns over its eyes; 6m in length
Icthyosaurus, aquatic reptile 13m long
Pterosaurus, flying dinosaurs with a wing span
of 8 meters long
Plesisaurus, marine reptile, 15m long
 Giant turtles, Archelon in the sea that reached
a length of 4 meters.
• Thus, these reptiles attained their maximum
development during the Mesozoic era.
• They ruled the earth over 100 million years …. A
hundred times more as long as man has dominated it.
• They successfully invaded land, sea and air.
• Towards the end of Cretaceous period a great many
groups of these reptiles became extinct.
• The sudden disappearance of dinosaur is still a
mystery.
• Many hypotheses have been presented to explain the
sudden disappearance of dinosaurs from the fossils
records.
• Since dinosaurs were cold blooded, the sudden
decrease in mean temperature may have been a
significant factor in their extinction.
• There is a well documented record of a sudden cooling
of the climate during the Cretaceous period. Because
of colder and drier climate many of the plants which
served as food for herbivorous reptiles disappeared.
Consequently, the carnivorous dinosaurs which preyed
upon herbivores may have become extinct for lack of an
adequate food supply.
• Some epidemic viral disease may have been responsible.
• It was also been proposed that small mammals may have
preyed upon eggs and young ones of dinosaurs, since
reptiles leave their eggs virtually unprotected.
• Some alkaloid poisoning of flowering plants may have caused
their extinction.
• Some of the herbivorous reptiles were too large to walk on land
when the swamps dried up due to sudden uplift of the land
during Cretaceous period.
• One recent theory proposes that a collision between earth and
a 10km wide asteroid killed the dinosaurs. The collision filled
the atmosphere with dust, cutting off the sun’s rays and
stopping vital photosynthesis. The evidence to support this
theory comes from the discovery of large deposits of iridium
at the end of Mesozoic (Iridium is rarely found in earth’s
crust, but occurs in great abundance in comets, meteors, and
asteroids).
It may have been a combination, or possibly all,
of the proposed disasters that led to the mass
extinction of dinosaurs.

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MESOZOIC LIFE

The Mesozoic era began about 225 million years ago

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