The Mesozoic Era

240-60 ma
Key theme: Pangea breaks up

Process will take

150 my and will
extend into the
Cenozoic
Laurentia/Baltica
and
Australia/Antarctica
are still joined at
the end of the
Mesozoic
 After the Permian extinction

Life came back in 10 to 20 million years. No tabulate or rugose

corals, so reefs were made of different organisms. Many niches on
land were repopulated by much different creatures.
 Angiosperms appear in the Cretaceous

Angiosperm plants are those that have flowers

Major change in plant life insects are now the pollinators
These are generally broad-leaf plants
Diversification of Reptiles

Marine Reptiles
Ichthyosaurs
Flying Reptiles
Pterosaurs
The Dinosaurs
Saurischian
Ornithischian
 Reptiles gain flight in Triassic

Pteranodon much different wing structure and

musculature than modern flying mammals like bats,
or even non-mammals like birds.
 The Dinosaurs
Approximately 700 species in 300 genera
Mostly warm-blooded (homeostatic)
Rapid metabolism; prey-predator ratio; many blood vessels
pores in the bones
Reproduction and Habits
Nesting behavior and social behavior (herds)
Characteristics
Eoraptor earliest thecodont (socket-teeth), related to
crocodiles
Sauropods long necks and large body quadrupeds;
Ornithopods are bipedal herbivores (Camptosaurus);
Stegosaurs and Ceratopians are quadruped herbivores
Extinctions: Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, and, of course, End
Cretaceous
 The Dinosaurs: Middle Triassic

Differences based on pelvic bone

arrangement: Late Triassic Evolution
Saurischian
Lizard-hipped, earliest group
Similar to thecodonts
Theropods (carnivorous dinosaurs)
Prosauropods (herbivores)
Sauropods (large herbivores)
Ornithischian
Bird-hipped, herbivorous dinosaurs
evolved from Prosauropods
True birds appear in the Jurassic

Archaeopteryx is the first

recognized bird
Most specimens are from
the Solnhofen lagenstatten
in Germany
True feathers, wishbone
However, this creature was
descended from one clade
of coelurosaurian
theropods; a different clade
is believed to be the lineage
for birds
True mammals appear in the Triassic

Evolved from a lineage of

mammal-like reptiles
Hair, mammary glands
homeostasis (= warm-
blooded, though some of
the dinosaurs may have
been)
 The mammals
Mammal-like reptiles therapsids (cynodonts)
Early Triassic: small cynodont gave raise to medium-size carnivores
and herbivores that are ancestral to mammals
Late Triassic: a small cynodont gave rise to the earliest mammal, the
morganucodontids
Most Triassic and Jurassic mammals were insectivores and very small

About twelve inches long; less than 2 kg

Key point: warm climate is the driver of
biodiversity/distribution in Mesozoic
 Keep an eye on: Tethys Sea

Opens from east in Permian, greatest extent in Jurassic, closes from

west in Cretaceous
 Triassic Period
First large rifts in
Pangea appear

Characterized
worldwide by:
Nonmarine red beds
Arkosic sandstones
Lake shales

All these are

deposited at the rift
margins

Rifts will become

modern oceans
 Absaroka transgression is ending
Mountains of Taconic orogeny
erode into newly-forming rift
basins (circled area is New
England, arrows show
direction of transport)

PALISADES SILL, NJ
Evidence of rifting of Atlantic Ocean
The fall line
Interesting
aspect of
eroding the
Taconic: the
Cretaceous
sediment is
eroded back
on US east
coast rivers
until it gets to
Taconic
crystalline
rocks
waterfalls are
formed
 Red beds

Red beds are

sandstones, siltstones
and shales that are,
well, red due to iron
oxide which was formed
either due to erosion of
red soils or exposure of
iron-rich sediments to
oxygen
Gulf of Mexico opens (restricted basin)

Restricted basin means that

marine waters evaporate
and leave lots of salt
Tropical marine water also
is quite bioproductive
organisms get trapped in
salt and eventually turn into
petroleum (oil and gas)
Salt domes here protect the
oil and therefore are
exploited
 Sonoma orogeny ends on US west coast
Subduction zone switches from westward dipping to eastward
dipping finally, denser oceanic seafloor to the west all these
mountains are gone, except for basin sediments
End of Triassic map
Mass extinction at the end of the Triassic
the least understood of the Big Five
 Causes of the end of Triassic mass extinction

Not really known, but may have to do with the end of the Absaroka
transgression (sea level was falling through the Triassic) and the
huge volumes of ocean floor basalt erupted when the Americas
rifted from Africa/Europe.
 Jurassic Period
Beginning of Zuni
transgression

On US mainland,
epeiric Sundance
Sea in Canada; due
to low sea levels,
significant
nonmarine sand
and silt deposition
Morrison Fm in
northern US is a
good source of
dinosaur bones
 Nevada orogeny is responsible for
emplacement of many batholiths

Obduction
occurs when
low-density
rocks ride
up over the
other plate
at a
subduction
zone
Jurassic age batholiths
All that remains of the Nevadan
orogeny are these batholiths
which have been obducted (in
some cases) on the North
American plate
Early Jurassic of the western US

Chinle Formation at Petrified Forest

National Park, Arizona
 Cretaceous Period
Creta means chalk

Reflects the Zuni

transgression;
worldwide warm
seas that allows
coccolithophores to
thrive and their
shells to deposit
and form chalk

Rudist (bivalve)
reefs are now oil
and gas traps
 During the Cretaceous

Sea level were higher; epeiric seas covered continents

Divergence of planktic organisms led to large coal and oil deposits
The Atlantic Ocean continued to open while the Tethys Ocean closed
India migrated northward
Oxygen levels neared 35% (modern = 21%); polar areas are warm
Why was the Cretaceous warm?
The deep ocean
was much warmer
than today. This
implies that more
hot rocks were
making up the sea
floor greater sea
floor spreading!

This may have

been caused by
increased mantle
plume activity
 Coccoliths
A coccolithophore is a calcium
carbonate-secreting green algae. Its
shell comprises round coccolith
plates, whose function is not well
understood. First appearing in the
Traissic, coccolithophores are an
important part of how calcium is
cycled to and from organisms.
Rudist bivalves formed reefs went extinct
at K/T boundary

Which leaves the niche wide open for the scleractinian corals
 Sevier (130-80 My) and Laramide (80-50 My)
orogenies
Both orogenies are
due to the
subduction of the
Farallon Plate; the
difference is timing
(Sevier came first)
and the angle of
subduction

All that remains of

the Sevier are folds
and thrusts in
Nevada and Utah;
Laramide are some
of the Rockies
Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary: the
second largest extinction in the record
Causes of the K/T extinction event
Chicxulub impact
Stratigraphy of an impact
Evidence for impact
Iridium is an
extremely rare
metal on the Earths
surface some
asteroids (via
meteorites) have
high concentrations
of iridium. This
iridium spike seen
in Montana is seen
worldwide.
 Further evidence for impact
Spherules
glass beads, felsic, melting of
crustal rocks
Soot
carbonaceous particles, wildfires
Shocked Quartz
Contains lamelle (little lines),
evidence of a high pressure shock
wave Shocked Quartz
Stishovite
high pressure form of quartz
Causes of the K/T extinction event
Deccan traps (2nd largest flood basalt)

Some magma sources are

contain high concentrations of
iridium.
 Ammonites and nautiloids flourish in the
oceans ammonites go extinct at the K/T
boundary, nautiloids survive

The reason for this is unclear

In fact, only 15% of terrestrial genera go extinct, while 70% of

marine genera do
At the end of the Cretaceous