What is a Dinosaur?
Millions of years ago, long before there were any people, there were dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were one of several kinds of prehistoric reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era, the “Age of Reptiles.”
THE MESOZOIC ERA “THE AGE OF REPTILES”Ages of the Mesozoic Era |
The Mesozoic Era was the time from 248 million to 65 million years ago. Our earth was very different than it is now. The weather was warmer, the seasons were very mild, the sea level was higher and no polar ice existed. Even the shape of the continents were different. Think of a jigsaw puzzle, when it is put together all of the pieces lay next to each other and interlock. But before they are put together, each piece is scattered. That is what the continents look like now, but in the Mesozoic Era all of the pieces were “put together”. This was called the super-continent of Pangaea, but in the middle of the Era, they began to shift and move away from one another.
Don’t forget to visit our fun page, where you can follow a link and put together your own Mesozoic puzzle of the world.
Toward the beginning of the Mesozoic Era there was change in the ecosystem in the world and many of the oldest life forms became extinct. This is called the Permian Extinction and considered to be the world’s largest extinction of whole species of life forms, including dinosaurs, mammals and later even birds and flowering plants.
The world’s life forms were very different during the Mesozoic than either before or after.
Zoom Dinosaurs 