Talk:Mesozoic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Earth sciences Portal
Mesozoic is part of WikiProject Geology, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use geology resource. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
High This article has been rated as high-importance on the importance scale.

The division of time into Eras dates to the 18th century. The 1800s are the 19th century. 'Triassic' is a term introduced in the 1830s. I made the change. Wetman 11:01, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Is age of dinosaurs appropriate? they didn't necessarily rule the earth at the time!--ShurTape 23:33, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] "Age of Reptiles"

There is a series of graphic novels called "Age of Reptiles", so shouldn't that article be here? Scorpionman 15:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] copy vio

the climate section is from [1]. I'll remove it. Matt 16:53, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Start/end times of periods

The many dinosaur books I read all give different dates for the beginning and starting points of the Mesozoic periods. The Triassic fluctuates from 248-213 to 235-195 million years ago and the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary shifts between 145 and 130 million years. What is the right timeline? Personally I think it's this:

  • Triassic- 245-200 mya
  • Jurassic- 200-135 mya
  • Cretaceous- 135-65 mya.

But what's really correct? Jerkov 20:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

According to the authority on the geologic time scale, the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the dates are as follows [2]:
  • Triassic (251.0 - 199.6)
  • Jurassic (199.6 - 145.5)
  • Cretaceous (145.5 - 65.5)
That's not how the article has them. I'll change it. -- bcasterline • talk 03:25, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Okay, thanks. I always thought the Triassic and Cretaceous started a bit later, but I guess we'll always be a few million years off because the dating methods aren't 100 % perfect. Jerkov 14:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Yep; the dating of the start and end times of various geologic periods and epochs is very much a work in progress.Erimus 23:02, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contradiction with "Cenozoic" article

This article reads (in intro), "The continents gradually shifted from a state of connectedness into their present configuration." But the Cenozoic article reads, "the Cenozoic is the era when continents moved into their current positions."

which is correct? they can't both....

[edit] Interwiki

The first interwiki link (there are two because of a mistake) to the Romanian article isn´t correct, it links to a different type of article on the Romanian Wikipedia. In fact it´s easy to tell, it´s not between Portuguese and Russian, as it normally is. The wrong one is just under "Brezhoneg", the first interwiki link.--Venatoreng 20:42, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mesozoic real facts

The Mesozoic Era lasted more than 180 million years. During this time, many modern forms of plants, invertebrates, and fishes evolved. On land, dinosaurs were the dominant animals, while the oceans were populated by large marine reptiles, and Pterosaurs ruled the air. For most of this period, the climate worldwide was warm and tropical, and shallow seas covered low-lying landmasses. At the beginning of the Mesozoic, all of the world's continents were joined into the supercontinent of Pangea,The Mesozoic Era is divided into three periods, each lasting many millions of years: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The Triassic saw the emergence of many modern invertebrate groups, and on land thereptiles replaced the mammals.In the oceans fishbecame as large as whales. The Jurassic was the height of the dinosaur era, with giants such as Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, etc, and mammals tiny and shrew-like. Distinctive plants like ferns, Cycads, Bennettitales, and Cheirolepidiaceae conifers characterized the landscape. During the Cretaceous period, the first flowering plants appeared, birds and fish diversified, and new types of dinosaurs appeared. The climate cooled and unique dinosaurs evolved on different continents. The climate during the Mesozoic is warm; so warm that there are no ice caps at all, even at the poles! Plants grow like crazy in the warmth and moisture, so there is food everywhere for your average hungry 50-ton Ultrasaurus! So what happened to this Dino Paradise? More change! A mass extinction like those in the Paleozoic ended the idyllic Mesozoic Era (if you can call dodging your friendly local T-Rex as idyllic). More than half of all existing life forms disappeared, including virtually all of the dinosaurs. Why? There are many hypotheses, including disease, volcanic eruptions, and giant impacts. As the temperatures in the seas increased, the larger animals of the early Mesozoic gradually began to disappear while smaller animals of all kinds, including lizards, snakes, and perhaps the ancestor mammals to primates, evolved. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Somoman (talk • contribs) 01:58, 7 January 2008 (UTC)