Mesozoic in a sentence

In the article the authors say the team’s findings “counter hypotheses that dinosaur faunas of the African mainland were completely isolated” during the late Mesozoic period.

Although known for large size, many Mesozoic dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller, and modern birds are generally small in size.

Anatomy and systematics of the Confuciusornithidae (Theropoda, Aves) from the late Mesozoic of northeastern China.

A second phase took place during the Mesozoic Era (before ~66 My) and consisted of a widespread extension of the Earth's crust that rifted and separated the continents mentioned above.

As the uplift was occurring some convert of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to the east.

As well, the extant genus Sequoia is believed to have evolved in the Mesozoic.

Bivalves were fairly rare before the P–Tr extinction but became numerous and diverse in the Triassic, and one group, the rudist clams, became the Mesozoic 's main reef-builders.

By dividing the Tertiary Period into two periods instead of directly into five epochs, the periods are more closely comparable to the duration of 'periods' in the Mesozoic and Paleozoic Eras.

Evidence of endothermy in Mesozoic dinosaurs includes the discovery of polar dinosaurs in Australia and Antarctica as well as analysis of blood-vessel structures within fossil bones that are typical of endotherms.

From a geological perspective, it did not take long for mammals and birds to greatly diversify in the absence of the large reptiles that had dominated during the Mesozoic.

Furthermore, Darren Naish concluded that atmospheric differences between the present and the Mesozoic were not needed for the giant size of pterosaurs. citation Pterosaur flight adaptations.

It also appears that the divergence of the three groups took place in the Paleozoic or early Mesozoic (around 250 million years ago), before the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea and soon after their divergence from the lobe-finned fish.

Mesozoic igneous activity is largely responsible for this diversity of mineral deposits and the mineral concentrations have been variably enhanced by hydrothermal activity associated with faulting.

Messinian salinity crisis During Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, as the northwest corner of Africa converged on Iberia, it lifted the Betic-Rif mountain belts across southern Iberia and northwest Africa.

Note the half-graben geometry, paleozoic and mesozoic sediments that existed pre-rift, and the large (up to 28%) amount of extension.

Pages 85,255–258 in The problem of land connections across the South Atlantic with special reference to the Mesozoic.

Pausas and Keeley, 594 Wildfires during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods followed patterns similar to fires that occur in modern times.

Peaks in France, Italy and Switzerland lie in the "Houillière zone", which consists of basement with sediments from the Mesozoic Era.

Prior to the extinction, about two-thirds of marine animals were sessile and attached to the sea floor but, during the Mesozoic, only about half of the marine animals were sessile while the rest were free-living.

Shoumatoff (2001), 35 In the Paleozoic Era the Pangaean supercontinent consisted of a single tectonic plate ; it broke into separate plates during the Mesozoic Era and the Tethys sea developed between Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic Period.