Mesozoic era

During the Mesozoic era also known as the era of ” Middle Life “, life managed to diversify rapidly and giant reptiles, dinosaurs and other monstrous beasts roamed the Earth. This period, which lasted from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago, was also known as the age of reptiles or the age of dinosaurs . During the period, there were no major orogenic changes but the continents began to separate .

What happened in the Mesozoic era

During the Mesozoic period or era there were great changes in terms of geological and biological transition . During this era, the continents began to move and separate from the Pangea . There was a modernization in the different forms of life that inhabited the earth, one reason for this was the disappearance of many types of organisms. There were three of the five largest and most historic mass extinctions on Earth, which in turn are related to the Mesozoic stage . As the continents separated, sediments began to accumulate. marine in large channels that today form the Pacific region, the eastern coasts of North America and the Gulf of Mexico . The orogeny began to appear on the western margins of North and South America. There were changes in the temperature of the equator and the poles because the earth was hotter than it is today. Evidence has been discovered that global cooling was the result of the impact of an asteroid against the Yucatan Peninsula , the great volcanic activity and the effects of the blocking of the sun by the dust that was thrown towards theatmosphere .

Characteristics of the Mesozoic era

• It was known as the time of the dinosaurs .
• Botanically it became known as the era of cycads .
• It began in the Triassic period and ended in the Cretaceous period .
• The environment was warmer than it is today and the polar zones did not yet exist.
• It began with the greatest extinction in the history of the Earth which took place 252 million years ago and resulted in the death of 96% of marine life and 70% of terrestrial life.
• The rise of the dinosaurs began with the extinction of their predecessors at the end of the Triassic Period, the arc saurians.

Periods of the Mesozoic era

The periods of the Mesozoic era are three:

• Triassic : In this period the first ammonoids arose and dinosaurs were born , which at the beginning were bipedal, carnivorous and small. There was the mass extinction of the Jurassic Permian and the first mammals began to evolve making their appearance in this period due to the climate changes that arose. The Pangea was formed and by the end of the period, dinosaurs had evolved into the vertebrates that dominated the entire planet. The Pangea began to separate.
• Cretaceous : It was divided into two:  lower and upper Cretaceous . It marked the end of the previous era and one of the greatest extinctions occurred , in which many of the dinosaurs disappeared along with many invertebrates . Evolution was based on flowering plants , mammals, and birds . It is believed that the extinction was due to weather and atmospheric causes , plus the fall of a large asteroid that killed many dinosaurs. The Andes mountain range began to form .
• Jurassic : It was the main era for dinosaurs. There was a hegemony of the great dinosaurs. By this time the Pangea had already been divided into two great masses separated by the Tethys Sea.

Weather

The climate can be studied depending on the period, therefore, in the Triassic period , it was hot and very dry, giving rise to deserts , it was very seasonal and had very hot summers and quite cold winters. In the Cretaceous period there is little data regarding the climate, but it is believed that the high levels of carbon dioxide produced a change in temperature , which went on to rise enormously, giving way to the formation of deserts. The climate in the Jurassic was hotter and more humid , with the presence of tropical belts and subtropical that formed new plants.

Animals of the Mesozoic era

The first mammals and birds appeared . These birds were descendants of dinosaurs . Some dinosaurs to conquer the air began to transform their forelimbs into wings to be able to fly and their body began to be covered with feathers to provide protection . In the Cretaceous period, animals such as hadrosaurs, iguanodons, ornithopods, pachycephalosaurs, all of them of enormous size, emerged. In the Jurassic period the first amphibians and reptiles appearedand the predators got bigger by adapting their ways of survival through hunting. The first birds also appeared.

Dinosaurs

They were the species that populated the earth millions of years ago. Reptiles of prehistoric origin of different sizes that populated and ruled the Mesozoic era . Some of them were bipedal , some had claws, and some were quadruped . They were slow, fast, of enormous size and some species were smaller in size. They were predatory and fast . They did not crawl, but could walk and could be carnivores or herbivores .

Floors

During the Mesozoic era, plants did not actually undergo great changes or extinctions. They were adapted to the type of climate dry and warm and mainly were cycads plants . Ferns dominated the more humid areas along with cycads, which were very similar to today’s palms and pines. In the last period there was the formation of abundant vegetation .