The Mesozoic Era

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The Mesozoic Era

The Mesozoic Era

Introduction

The Mesozoic era (Mesozoic, from the Greek) is the length of time in geological history of Earth from 220-240 million to 63-69 million years ago, one of the three eras of the Phanerozoic. This is the second of the Precambrian era of geological history of Earth is divided into three periods - the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. It was first indicated in 1841 by the British geologist John Phillips. The Mesozoic is after the pre-Paleozoic and Cenozoic. It lasted for about 225 million years ago until 65 million. From the end of the era Elementary and High School along with other sources gave teachings about the separation of the continents. The supercontinent Pangea broke apart on one side giving Gondwana formed by South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica and on the other hand Australia while America, Europe and Asia that were part of Laurasia.

The creation of ridges on the ocean floor and the volume represented were responsible for half of the continents were flooded. However, because of the collisions between the plates that created separate forming mountain ranges. Mesozoic is an era of tectonic, climatic and evolutionary activity. There is a formation of the main contours of the modern continents and mountain building at the periphery of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the division of land contributed to speciation and other important evolutionary events. The climate was exceptionally warm throughout the interim period, which also played an important role in the evolution and formation of new species of animals. However, by the end of the era of most of the species diversity of life came closer to its modern state .

The Mesozoic was the warmest period on Earth. For this reason, organisms that currently inhabit the tropics, than spread across the planet. Thus, this is a time of warm humid climate, flowering amphibians and dinosaurs.

Discussion

During these 160 million years there were no major orogenic movements. This was missing large groups of animals such as trilobites, graptolites, and armored fish. Fully developed vertebrates, especially reptiles, so the secondary was also called the Age of Reptiles or age of the dinosaurs. Angiosperm plants also grow in showy flowers. The most spectacular geographical development of the Mesozoic Era was the fragmentation of Pangea , rifting process that began in the region of Tethys , following the old Hercynian suture The Tethys proceeded to form a narrow and deep oceanic arm which separated Europe from Africa. The rift has spread north and south finally starting to separate South America and Africa.

Lower (between the Permian and Triassic periods, i.e. between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic) boundary signified massive Permian-Triassic extinction, which killed approximately 90-96% of marine life and 70% of land vertebrates. The upper limit is set at the turn of the Cretaceous and Paleocene , when there was another very large extinction of many groups of plants and animals, mostly attributable to the fall of a giant asteroid (crater Chicxulub on the peninsula of Yucatan), and the ensuing ...
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