GEOL 1066 Chapter : Mesozoic Climates And Diversity
Document Summary
Mesozoic climates: paleoclimate: ancient climate, shaped by, amount of land, latitude, longitude, water bodies, ocean currents, terrain, greenhouse gases, reconstructed via sediments from lake beds, ice cores, biotic evidence (tree rings, corals, climate models. Massive extinction at the permian: lost majority of corals, brachiopods, mollusks, echinoderms, What was around: in the sea, hard shelled marine inverts: bivalves, gastropods, ammonites, echinoids, some brachiopods, proto ichthyosaurs went into the sea, on land: small herbivorous synapsid lystrosaurus, amphibians. Lystrosaurus: accounts for 95% of fossil material, size of a pig, 200lbs, therapsids: group of synapsids that includes mammals and ancestors. Mid triassic: pangaea started breaking apart, conditions similar to early triassic, protodinosaurs present, extinction of most of the synapsids. Silisaurus kongwe: 3-10 ft long, 2-3 ft tall, 20-70 lbs. Late triassic- 235-201 ma: dinos widespread and dominated landscape, early mammals, major extinction: 50% of life disappeared 34% marine life, large amphibians, crurotarsans.
