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May 8, 1111
triassic
-The giant supercontinent of Pangaea began breaking up toward the end of the Triassic.
-This seaway gradually extended right through Pangaea, pushing South America away from Central and North America, which in turn began drifting apart from Europe,
-small fury animals;scientists think may have been warm-blooded and covered in insulating fur. By about 200 million years ago, true mammals had evolved, such as Megazostrodon, a small, shrewlike creature that likely hunted for insects at night. -
jurrasic
Dinosaurs appear; Vulcanodon, for instance, helped lay the massive foundations for plodding, plant-eating sauropod dinosaurs.
-Equipped with a small head on the end of a long neck, it measured about 20 feet (6.5 meters) long. On the meat-eating side, there was Dilophosaurus, a powerful, two-legged hunter
that weighed up to half a ton.
-Birds:Birds became airborne some 150 million years ago, the earliest record coming from a well-preserved fossil discovered in Germany in 1861. -
cretaceous
-Flowering plants bloom in the fossil record about 125 million years ago, the oldest known examples coming from China.
-The plants probably first took root in the Jurassic, but it wasn't until the Cretaceous that they flourished, encouraged by a predominately warm, mild climate
-examples:broad-leaved trees, which started replacing conifers, ferns, and cycads, while flowers triggered the evolution of pollinating insects such as bees. -
cretaceous
-Dinosaurs Go Extinct
-The end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, was signaled by a massive extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. Up to 50 percent of the planet's animal and plant species disappeared.
