PROLOGUE: THE MESOZOIC WORLD
Dinosaurs ruled for 160 million years, far longer than our own species. Their world was vastly different from the world today, for they lived in a different geologic era, the Mesozoic.
In the Triassic period, which began about 230 million years ago (mya), all the land on Earth was joined into one giant mass called Pangea. As time marched forward, Pangea split into two smaller masses. The northern one, called Laurasia, was composed of what would become North America, Europe, and northern Asia. The southernmost mass, Gondwanaland, was composed primarily of the southern continents. An inland sea filled the Great Plains region, and the Rocky Mountains werebarely new.
The climate itself was different. It was hotter, more tropical, in those days. Ferns, cycads, and conifers were the dominant plant life through the Triassic and Jurassic periods. In the Cretaceous came flowering plants, and pollinators.
In the days of the dinosaurs, ahuman would barely recognize Earth. Reptiles and birds ruled land, sea, and sky. Mammals stayed small and were mostly nocturnal. This way, they might be ignored by a hungry dinosaur. Only one event changed the situation, an even 100 million years in the making: the K-T asteroid impact 65 mya. (see "Epilogue: End of an Era" at the end of this book)
Dinosaurs ruled for 160 million years, far longer than our own species. Their world was vastly different from the world today, for they lived in a different geologic era, the Mesozoic.
In the Triassic period, which began about 230 million years ago (mya), all the land on Earth was joined into one giant mass called Pangea. As time marched forward, Pangea split into two smaller masses. The northern one, called Laurasia, was composed of what would become North America, Europe, and northern Asia. The southernmost mass, Gondwanaland, was composed primarily of the southern continents. An inland sea filled the Great Plains region, and the Rocky Mountains werebarely new.
The climate itself was different. It was hotter, more tropical, in those days. Ferns, cycads, and conifers were the dominant plant life through the Triassic and Jurassic periods. In the Cretaceous came flowering plants, and pollinators.
In the days of the dinosaurs, ahuman would barely recognize Earth. Reptiles and birds ruled land, sea, and sky. Mammals stayed small and were mostly nocturnal. This way, they might be ignored by a hungry dinosaur. Only one event changed the situation, an even 100 million years in the making: the K-T asteroid impact 65 mya. (see "Epilogue: End of an Era" at the end of this book)
