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The Mesozoic Era [3] is the era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs, and of gymnosperms such as cycads, ginkgoaceae and araucarian conifers; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea.
Reconstruction of the past 5 million years of climate history, based on oxygen isotope fractionation in deep sea sediment cores (serving as a proxy for the total global mass of glacial ice sheets), fitted to a model of orbital forcing (Lisiecki and Raymo 2005) [2] and to the temperature scale derived from Vostok ice cores following Petit et al. (1999).
The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous, with a very low average global temperature gradient. As a consequence, high paleolatitudes ...
The high sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant large areas of the continents were covered by warm, shallow seas, providing habitat for many marine organisms. The Cretaceous was named for the extensive chalk deposits of this age in Europe, but in many parts of the world, the deposits from the Cretaceous are of marine limestone , a ...
The Triassic (/ t r aɪ ˈ æ s ɪ k / try-ASS-ik; sometimes symbolized 🝈) [8] is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. [9]
A new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmasses create climates with extreme variations of heat and cold ("continental climate") and monsoon conditions with highly seasonal rainfall patterns. Deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea.
This produced a Mesozoic CO 2 high that contributed to the very warm climate of the Early Cretaceous. [56] The opening of the Tethys Ocean also contributed to the warming of the climate. [ 57 ] The very active mid-ocean ridges associated with the breakup of Pangaea raised sea levels to the highest in the geological record, flooding much of the ...
The Mesozoic ("middle life") era lasted from 251.9 Ma to 66 Ma. [105] It is subdivided into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. The era began with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the fossil record; 95% of the species on Earth died out. [149]