Jurassic Era Research Paper

The Jurassic Period was the second half of the Mesozoic Era. It took place around 199.6 to 146.5 million years ago, following after the Triassic period and before the Cretaceous period. During this time period, the supercontinent known as Pangaea broke apart. The Northern half, called Laurentia and would later part into North America and Eurasia, was starting to split. The tearing of this part of the continent also started to make way for water passages that would soon be known as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. Meanwhile, the southern half, Gondwana, started to drift in a more eastern direction, slowly pulling apart in order to begin the creation of Antarctica, Madagascar, India and Australia. A more western portion of Gondwana

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 65 million years and thankfully for the human race, they became extinct. Ultimately, only a major catastrophe could completely wipe out an entire species, let alone an entity of dinosaurs and the debacle on the causes of dinosaur extinction have flooded the minds of paleontologists for centuries. Geologist and zoologist Stephen Jay Gould published “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” to compare scientific and speculative causes of dinosaur decimation. Personally, I found this passage very informational and enjoyed reading it. Gould provides three theories that capture the reader’s curiosity, allowing room for pondering in one’s mind.

Four and a half billion years ago, the debris and dust left from the formation of the sun coalesced to form our home planet. 3.5 billion years ago, the first living organisms appeared on Earth. About 230 million years ago, Dinosaurs diverged from their Archosaurs ancestors during the middle to late Triassic period. For 160 million years they have dominated our planet. They are dubbed the most successful species to have lived on Earth. However, 65 million years ago, the most recent mass extinction seemed to have caused all of them to die-off. What caused the demise of the dinosaurs and 60% of life on Earth at the time? How did it affect life on Earth afterwards? Are all of the Dinosaurs dead? Will this happen to humans in the near future?

The fifth, and one of the largest and most well known extinctions in Earths history was the Cretaceous period, where many species, including the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, disappeared. This period was widely known as the K-T period, K being the traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous Period derived from the German name Kreidezeit, and T being the abbreviation for the Tertiary Period (a historical term for the period of time now covered by the Paleogene and Neogene periods). It was a relatively warm climate and had high global sea levels. The oceans and seas were populated with now extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, and the land by dinosaurs. At the same time, new groups of mammals and birds as well as flowering plants appeared. The early part of the Cretaceous showed a cooling trend that had been

The Triassic, The Jurassic, and The Cretaceous. In extent, these periods represent different measurements of life. The Triassic period was the first period of the Mesozoic Era which occurred between 251 and 99 million years ago. Also, The Triassic period was the evolution of dinosaurs.

Why, none other than the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago, the planet's most severe extinction. The dinosaurs were just the highest-profile casualty of this event (possibly a meteor impact, possibly a volcanic event, theories abound), which wiped out 70% of all terrestrial species and 96% of all marine species. (Read those numbers again.)

These techniques led to the discovery of the boundary between the two eras. A single thin layer of clay found within predominantly limestone rocks established this. By comparing the marine life found in, above, and below the clay, the marine life, like the dinosaurs, had been terribly affected by the extinction event. The percentage of life in the upper layers was dramatically lower than that in the lower. This was far more compelling than what was suggested by dinosaur’s fossils.

This consists of a volcano erupting from underground, once again spreading ash into the atmosphere killing off the dinosaurs. Although these two theories are the most common, there are many others on how the dinosaurs came to be extinct. These two theories are most common, because of the amount of evidence that is established throughout both sides of these two theories. One theory as to how the dinosaurs became

The last animal I am going to talk about are the reptiles. During this time, reptiles were changing and evolving quickly. Some reptiles had sharp teeth that is similar to our modern-day crocodile. Others had scaly and thick skin, which would keep them hydrated if they were away from water for a while.There were also small reptiles, whose fossils were found inside tree stumps. Amphibians and fish also thrived during this time. The first dinosaurs like the t-rex, spinosaurus, and velociraptor, were also first appearing.

Shifting from the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago into the next era, the Triassic period occurred between 250 and 199 million years ago and was know for further diversifying life on land. After the Permian period, the Triassic period was largely successful in adapting and evolving, as the world was going through many changes. The land mass known as Pangea began its separation, which would be completed in the Jurassic period. The climate was relatively more severe during this time, with hotter summers and colder winters, but because of the warmer atmosphere, there were no polar ice caps at this time. Towards the center of Pangea, it was mostly a dry desert climate. As for life on earth, most of the marine life had been wiped

At the same time of the dinosaurs Australia was breaking away from Antarctica and gradually moving away from the South Pole, closer to the Equator. This would of lead to changes in climate for Australia. The weather would have become colder and this would have meant that the dinosaurs would of had to adapt to the colder conditions. The climate change theory suggests that dinosaurs wouldn't of been able to adapt to these changes quick enough, however new evidence suggests that because it took hundreds of year for Australia to shift its place the dinosaurs would have been able to adapt (The State of Queensland Dinosaurs climate change and biodiversity, 2010). Now we know that the dinosaurs would have been able to adapt to the changes in climate there is know scientific evidence to support this theory (A&E Television Networks

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton demonstrated many dinosaur characteristics and behaviors. The dinosaurs were fictionally characterized to appeal to the readers. By examining the dinosaur’s appearance and behaviors of dinosaurs such as the duckbilled dinosaur, velociraptor, hypsilophodontids, dilophosaurs, Triceratops, apatosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurs, and maiasaurs distinguished whether the evidence existed in the field of paleontology. The behaviors and characteristics of the dinosaur are divided into three factors as behaviors that were supported, not supported, and no evidence to support or refute the behavior.

“A minority disputes this theory, arguing that other events-such as volcanic eruptions, sea-level changes or a series of impacts-were to blame for the spectacular loss of species that occurred at the transition between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods…”

In the early Aeronian (440.8 million - 438.5 million BP) the Gondwanan ice sheets was melting as a result of climatic changes, and thus led to a rapidly rise in the sea level (Loydell, 1998). Cretaceous was a period where Gondwana was almost free of ice, and possibly one of the warmest in recorded history (Carvalho et al., 2010). Cretaceous was a highly active period, where tectonics uplift, atmospheric circulation, volcanism and several configurations of landmasses occurred (Hay, 1996), the locomotion of lithospheric plates led to one of the major volcanic event in the history of Earth (Bellieni et al., 1984). The many volcanic events in the Early Cretaceous led to the break-up of South America and Africa in Western

Rapid climate change also ends up on the suspect list of possible dinosaur extinction events. During the latter part of the Cretaceous Period continents broke up causing volcanoes to erupt and fill the sky with gas and ash resulting in a drastic climate change (“Dinosaurs Climate Change and Biodiversity”). The shifting of continents changed the Earth’s landscape, altering weather patterns and overall climate (“Dinosaur Extinction Theories”). Also, over a long period of time, climate gradually changed. Ocean habits changed, temperatures grew much more extreme causing scorching summers and frigid winters (Norell, Dingus, and Gaffney). Radical temperature changes like these led to a green-house effect, making life for the dinosaurs a lot