Mesozoic Era - Weekly Blog (9/17-9/21)

File:Geologic Clock with events and periods.svg by Woudloper 

Summary:

The Mesozoic Era took place 245 to 66 million years ago. The Mesozoic era can be divided into three periods, known as Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The first period is the Triassic period, which happened around 245-208 million years ago. During this period, the first dinosaurs, crocodiles, and turtles evolved. Cone-trees and other palm-like trees dominated the forests. The next period is the Jurassic period, taking place around 208-144 million years ago. During this period, large dinosaurs roam the world. Some of the first birds started appearing, and various mammals became more common. The last period during this era is the Cretaceous era, taking place 144-66 million years ago. During this era, the first flowering plants started appearing. At the end of this era, a mass extinction caused the disappearance of many organisms, mainly dinosaurs.

During the Mesozoic era, the world was connected to a supercontinent known as the Pangea. Around the middle of the Triassic period, the Pangea started to break apart, creating two smaller continents, known as Gondwana, and Laurasia. By the beginning of the Cretaceous period, the Pangea was spreading apart, and by the mid-Cretaceous, it had already split into many smaller continents.

According to the California Life Science Textbook, Mesozoic means "middle animals," and around the time when the world’s animals changed from that which had been seen in the Paleozoic. Some of the animals include lycophytes, glossopterids, dicynodonts, cycadeoids, and dinosaurs. As well as animals, the vegetation and plants during the Mesozoic era changed greatly. At the beginning of the Mesozoic era, major plants include ferns, cycads, ginkgophytes, bennettitaleans, and more. During the beginning of the Triassic periods, according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology, “Modern gymnosperms, such as conifers, first appeared in their current recognizable forms in the early Triassic. By the middle of the Cretaceous, the earliest angiosperms had appeared and began to diversify, largely taking over from the other plant groups.”

Sp8: Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information

This week, we read through various articles and scientific texts to find important information, evidence, and ideas about the era that we are researching. We obtained information from various sources to learn more about the era and the periods that it is divided into. Next, we evaluated the information to answer important research questions to add to our poster. Once we were finished evaluating our information, we communicated with the other people in our group to share our findings. During this project, obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information has helped me stay organized and learn much more about the Mesozoic era.

XCC: Cause and Effect

In class, I observed many cause and effect relationships that happened during the Mesozoic era. For example, the cause of tectonic plate changes led to the effect of continents being on high elevation, and the usual flooding of continents did not occur. Another cause and effect relationship that I observed was between the supercontinent Pangea and the creation of mountains on the west coast of North America. The cause, which was that the supercontinent started breaking apart, led to the subduction of the ocean plates, leading to the effect of creating new mountains. Observing and understanding this relationship has helped me learn more about the Mesozoic era and how various factors have affected the world we live in today.