Mesozoic

qas: question: What era was 250 million to 247 million years ago?
answers: text: Early Triassic

question: What geologic climate was found in the Early Triassic?
answers: text: deserts

question: What landmass was still unbroken in the Early Triassic?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: What percentage of extinction of species had recently happened??
answers: text: 95%

question: What species had evolved after  the extinction and would become the basic predator in the Triassic?
answers: text: Temnospondyli

question: What geologic climate was not found in the Early Triassic?

question: What percentage of species growth had recently happened?

question: What landmass broke in the Earl Triassic?

question: What species had evolved before the extinction and would become the basic predator in the Triassic?

question: What was the most rare life on earth?
context: The Early Triassic was between 250 million to 247 million years ago and was dominated by deserts as Pangaea had not yet broken up, thus the interior was nothing but arid. The Earth had just witnessed a massive die-off in which 95% of all life went extinct. The most common life on earth were Lystrosaurus, Labyrinthodont, and Euparkeria along with many other creatures that managed to survive the Great Dying. Temnospondyli evolved during this time and would be the dominant predator for much of the Triassic.

qas: question: What event produced further adaptations during  the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods?
answers: text: climatic changes

question: When was the top of archosaur diversity?
answers: text: Jurassic

question: What species spread towards the poles during the Jurassic?
answers: text: Angiosperms

question: What species dominated many tree floras by the end of the Cretaceous period?
answers: text: angiosperms

question: What types of species are thought to still have been dominate until after the extinction?
answers: text: cycad and ferns

question: What event stunted adaptions during the Jurassic?

question: When was the bottom of archosaur diversity?

question: The temperature gradient prevented what land species growth?

question: What prevented the spread of angiosperms towards the poles?

question: What types of species are thought to have died before the extinction?
context: The climatic changes of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous provided for further adaptive radiation. The Jurassic was the height of archosaur diversity, and the first birds and eutherian mammals also appeared. Angiosperms radiated sometime in the early Cretaceous, first in the tropics, but the even temperature gradient allowed them to spread toward the poles throughout the period. By the end of the Cretaceous, angiosperms dominated tree floras in many areas, although some evidence suggests that biomass was still dominated by cycad and ferns until after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction.

qas: question: What event sets the boundary for the Triassic?
answers: text: Permian–Triassic extinction

question: What percentage of marine life died during the extinction?
answers: text: 90% to 96%

question: How many terrestrial species died during the extinction?
answers: text: 70%

question: What is the largest extinction of species in Earth's history known as?
answers: text: Great Dying

question: What is the possible cause of the upper Cretaceous extinction event ?
answers: text: K–Pg) extinction

question: What percentage of marine life growth happened during the Permian–Triassic era?

question: How many terrestrial species were created during the Permian–Triassic era?

question: Large volcanic eruptions contributed to the expansion of what period?

question: What percent of terrestrial vertebrates became extinct on the Yucatán Peninsula?

question: What percentage of all genera thrived during the Cretaceous–Paleogene era?
context: The lower (Triassic) boundary is set by the Permian–Triassic extinction event, during which approximately 90% to 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrates became extinct. It is also known as the "Great Dying" because it is considered the largest mass extinction in the Earth's history. The upper (Cretaceous) boundary is set at the Cretaceous–Tertiary (KT) extinction event (now more accurately called the Cretaceous–Paleogene (or K–Pg) extinction event), which may have been caused by the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula. Towards the Late Cretaceous large volcanic eruptions are also believed to have contributed to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Approximately 50% of all genera became extinct, including all of the non-avian dinosaurs.

qas: question: What is the span of the Late Cretaceous period?
answers: text: 100 million to 65 million years

question: What weather trend ocured in the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic periods?
answers: text: cooling

question: What climate was restricted to the equatorial areas?
answers: text: tropics

question: What type of weather changes did areas outside of the tropics experience?
answers: text: extreme seasonal changes

question: What event ended the age of the dinosaur by causing a 75% extinction?
answers: text: K-T Extinction

question: What weather trend didn't ocur in the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic periods?

question: Which dinosaur species saw its demise during the Late Cretaceous?

question: Which water borne species brought about the extinction of the Mosasaurs?

question: Flowering plants died out during which period?

question: Which dinosaurs help pollute the atmosphere?
context: The Late Cretaceous spans from 100 million to 65 million years ago. The Late Cretaceous featured a cooling trend that would continue on in the Cenozoic period. Eventually, tropics were restricted to the equator and areas beyond the tropic lines featured extreme seasonal changes in weather. Dinosaurs still thrived as new species such as Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops and Hadrosaurs dominated the food web. In the oceans, Mosasaurs ruled the seas to fill the role of the Ichthyosaurs, and huge plesiosaurs, such as Elasmosaurus, evolved. Also, the first flowering plants evolved. At the end of the Cretaceous, the Deccan traps and other volcanic eruptions were poisoning the atmosphere. As this was continuing, it is thought that a large meteor smashed into earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater in an event known as the K-T Extinction, the fifth and most recent mass extinction event, in which 75% of life on earth went extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Everything over 10 kilograms went extinct. The age of the dinosaurs was over.

qas: question: What is uncertain about the Cretaceous?
answers: text: climate

question: What atmospheric gas caused temperatures levels to be 10 degrees higher than today?
answers: text: carbon dioxide

question: What was about equal across the planet?
answers: text: temperatures

question: During the Cretaceous what climate was thought to be found in areas near the seas?
answers: text: deserts

question: What did large amounts of deposited un-decomposed organic matter later become?
answers: text: black shale

question: What is most volatile aspect about the Cretaceous?

question: Lower levels of carbon dioxide caused what?

question: The circulation of oxygen in the deep ocean may have increased during what period?

question: Black shale was destroyed by what during the Cretaceous period?

question: Why were equatorial ocean waters too cold?
context: The climate of the Cretaceous is less certain and more widely disputed. Higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are thought to have caused the world temperature gradient from north to south to become almost flat: temperatures were about the same across the planet. Average temperatures were also higher than today by about 10°C. In fact, by the middle Cretaceous, equatorial ocean waters (perhaps as warm as 20 °C in the deep ocean) may have been too warm for sea life,[dubious – discuss][citation needed] and land areas near the equator may have been deserts despite their proximity to water. The circulation of oxygen to the deep ocean may also have been disrupted.[dubious – discuss] For this reason, large volumes of organic matter that was unable to decompose accumulated, eventually being deposited as "black shale".

qas: question: What was the span of the Late Triassic?
answers: text: 237 million to 200 million years

question: Besides moderate precipitation, what weather conditions did the Late Triassic have?
answers: text: heat spells

question: When did the first dinosaurs evolve?
answers: text: Triassic

question: According to theory, what did climate change in the Late Triassic cause?
answers: text: Triassic-Jurassic extinction

question: What was the only archosaur to survive the fourth mass extinction?
answers: text: crocodiles

question: Besides moderate precipitation, what weather conditions did the Late Triassic not have?

question: What lead to the demise of a certain segment of reptilian evolution?

question: What resulted in a relatively small die-out known as the Triassic Jurassic extinction event?

question: What survived the Triassic Jurassic extinction event?

question: 34% of marine life survived what extinction event?
context: The Late Triassic spans from 237 million to 200 million years ago. Following the bloom of the Middle Triassic, the Late Triassic featured frequent heat spells, as well as moderate precipitation (10-20 inches per year). The recent warming led to a boom of reptilian evolution on land as the first true dinosaurs evolve, as well as pterosaurs. All this climatic change, however, resulted in a large die-out known as the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, in which all archosaurs (excluding ancient crocodiles), most synapsids, and almost all large amphibians went extinct, as well as 34% of marine life in the fourth mass extinction event of the world. The cause is debatable.

qas: question: What is the span of the Early Cretaceous?
answers: text: 145 million to 100 million years

question: What event of the Early Cretaceous caused the extinction of several species?
answers: text: expansion of seaways

question: What species died out due to the expansion of coastal shallows?
answers: text: Ichthyosaurs

question: What species dominated the seas?
answers: text: Mosasaurs

question: What dinosaur spread to every continent?
answers: text: Iguanodon

question: What event of the Early Cretaceous caused the proliferation of several species?

question: What dinosaur was particularly confined to one continent?

question: What caused Ichthyosaurs to thrive?

question: Which species avoided the polar areas?

question: What species was most similar to crocodiles?
context: The Early Cretaceous spans from 145 million to 100 million years ago. The Early Cretaceous saw the expansion of seaways, and as a result, the decline and extinction of sauropods (except in South America). Many coastal shallows were created, and that caused Ichthyosaurs to die out. Mosasaurs evolved to replace them as head of the seas. Some island-hopping dinosaurs, like Eustreptospondylus, evolved to cope with the coastal shallows and small islands of ancient Europe. Other dinosaurs rose up to fill the empty space that the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction left behind, such as Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus. Of the most successful would be the Iguanodon which spread to every continent. Seasons came back into effect and the poles got seasonally colder, but dinosaurs still inhabited this area like the Leaellynasaura which inhabited the polar forests year-round, and many dinosaurs migrated there during summer like Muttaburrasaurus. Since it was too cold for crocodiles, it was the last stronghold for large amphibians, like Koolasuchus. Pterosaurs got larger as species like Tapejara and Ornithocheirus evolved.

qas: question: What caused the sea to rise during the Jurassic?
answers: text: increase in seafloor

question: Rising seas and displaced waters caused what  element along the coasts?
answers: text: flooded coastal areas

question: Pangaea beginning to break apart created what new sea?
answers: text: Tethys Sea

question: What weather condition increased?
answers: text: Temperatures

question: As humidity increased what land area decreased?
answers: text: deserts

question: What caused the sea to fall during the Jurassic?

question: Rising seas and displaced waters destroyed what element along the coasts?

question: What weather condition became much more stable?

question: Why did humidity decrease during the Jurassic?

question: By how much did oceans increase in size compared to today?
context: Sea levels began to rise during the Jurassic, which was probably caused by an increase in seafloor spreading. The formation of new crust beneath the surface displaced ocean waters by as much as 200 m (656 ft) more than today, which flooded coastal areas. Furthermore, Pangaea began to rift into smaller divisions, bringing more land area in contact with the ocean by forming the Tethys Sea. Temperatures continued to increase and began to stabilize. Humidity also increased with the proximity of water, and deserts retreated.

qas: question: What is the span of years for the Early Jurassic?
answers: text: 200 million years to 175 million

question: What feature of the climate produced a more tropical world?
answers: text: more humid

question: Besides Ichthyosaurs and Ammonites, what was the other dominate species in the seas?
answers: text: Plesiosaurs

question: What was the highest order of species n land?
answers: text: Dilophosaurus

question: What other order evolved during the Jurassic?
answers: text: true mammals

question: What feature of the climate hindered a more tropical world

question: Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs were mostly hunted by with competitive species?

question: What species saw itself at the bottom of the race hierarchy?

question: Reptiles were a submissive species during what time period?

question: Crocodiles were threatened by what species?
context: The Early Jurassic spans from 200 million years to 175 million years ago. The climate was much more humid than the Triassic, and as a result, the world was very tropical. In the oceans, Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs and Ammonites fill waters as the dominant races of the seas. On land, dinosaurs and other reptiles stake their claim as the dominant race of the land, with species such as Dilophosaurus at the top. The first true crocodiles evolved, pushing out the large amphibians to near extinction. All-in-all, reptiles rise to rule the world. Meanwhile, the first true mammals evolve, but remained relatively small sized.

qas: question: At what time was tectonic formation mild?
answers: text: Mesozoic

question: Where did the basic geological changes of this period occur?
answers: text: Arctic

question: What supercontinent split to form two smaller continents?
answers: text: Pangaea

question: What was the northern continent split from Pangaea?
answers: text: Laurasia

question: What was Pangaea's southern continent called?
answers: text: Gondwana

question: At what time was tectonic formation especially active?

question: What was the northern continent that combined into Pangaea?

question: What continent split to destroy the passive continental margin near the Atlantic?

question: What destroyed the Innuitian orogeny?
context: Compared to the vigorous convergent plate mountain-building of the late Paleozoic, Mesozoic tectonic deformation was comparatively mild. The sole major Mesozoic orogeny occurred in what is now the Arctic, creating the Innuitian orogeny, the Brooks Range, the Verkhoyansk and Cherskiy Ranges in Siberia, and the Khingan Mountains in Manchuria. This orogeny was related to the opening of the Arctic Ocean and subduction of the North China and Siberian cratons under the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, the era featured the dramatic rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea gradually split into a northern continent, Laurasia, and a southern continent, Gondwana. This created the passive continental margin that characterizes most of the Atlantic coastline (such as along the U.S. East Coast) today.

qas: question: What type of animals took longer to reestablish?
answers: text: specialized animals

question: When did recovery of these diverse animals begin?
answers: text: mid-Triassic

question: How long after the Permian-Triassic extinction did animal recovery take to completion?
answers: text: 30M years

question: What dominated animal life in the Triassic?
answers: text: reptiles

question: How many years after the extinction did animal recovery begin?
answers: text: 4M to 6M

question: What type of animals were especially quick to reestablish?

question: The recovery of many species failed during what period of the Triassic?

question: What animal life was most at risk in the Triassic?

question: How many years of recovery did the extinction interrupt?
context: Recent research indicates that the specialized animals that formed complex ecosystems, with high biodiversity, complex food webs and a variety of niches, took much longer to reestablish, recovery did not begin until the start of the mid-Triassic, 4M to 6M years after the extinction and was not complete until 30M years after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Animal life was then dominated by various archosaurian reptiles: dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs.

qas: question: At what point did the Mesozoic era begin?
answers: text: Permian–Triassic extinction

question: When did the Mesozoic end?
answers: text: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction

question: What kind of geologic activity occurred during the Mesozoic?
answers: text: tectonic

question: Besides climate changes, what other important activity occurred during the Mesozoic?
answers: text: evolutionary

question: When mamals appeared they remained small until what period?
answers: text: Cenozoic

question: At what point did the Mesozoic era end?

question: The Mesozoic was a time devoid of what activity?

question: What quickly split the supercontinent Pangea into landmasses?

question: Non-avian dinosaurs disappeared in what period?

question: Birds devolved from what branch of dinosaurs?
context: The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction which is known for having killed off non-avian dinosaurs, as well as other plant and animal species. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climate and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses that would eventually move into their current positions. The climate of the Mesozoic was varied, alternating between warming and cooling periods. Overall, however, the Earth was hotter than it is today. Non-avian dinosaurs appeared in the Late Triassic and became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates early in the Jurassic, occupying this position for about 135 million years until their demise at the end of the Cretaceous. Birds first appeared in the Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs. The first mammals also appeared during the Mesozoic, but would remain small—less than 15 kg (33 lb)—until the Cenozoic.

qas: question: What is the span of years of the Middle Triassic?
answers: text: 247 million to 237 million

question: What continuing event began in the Middle Triassic?
answers: text: breakup of Pangaea

question: During the breakup of Pangaea, what sea was created?
answers: text: Tethys Sea

question: From what had the ecosystem had to recover?
answers: text: the Great Dying

question: What type of animal began to flourish and become increasingly large?
answers: text: reptiles

question: What continuing event ended in the Middle Triassic?

question: In what period did pine forests mostly die out?

question: During the formation of Pangaea, what sea was created?

question: Pine forests brought about the demise of what insects?
context: The Middle Triassic spans from 247 million to 237 million years ago. The Middle Triassic featured the beginnings of the breakup of Pangaea, and the beginning of the Tethys Sea. The ecosystem had recovered from the devastation that was the Great Dying. Phytoplankton, coral, and crustaceans all had recovered, and the reptiles began to get bigger and bigger. New aquatic reptiles evolved such as Ichthyosaurs and Nothosaurs. Meanwhile, on land, Pine forests flourished, bringing along mosquitoes and fruit flies. The first ancient crocodilians evolved, which sparked competition with the large amphibians that had since ruled the freshwater world.

qas: question: How many years did the Late Jurassic cover?
answers: text: 163 million to 145 million

question: What did the separation of Pangaea cause to become extinct?
answers: text: sauropods and Ichthyosaurs

question: What is the extinction caused by the splitting of Pangaea called?
answers: text: Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction

question: What caused the destruction of fern prairies and increasing shallows?
answers: text: Sea levels rose

question: What did the rise in sea levels open in the seaways? 
answers: text: Atlantic sea

question: In the Late Jurassic what species survived?

question: The separation of Pangaea allowed what species to thrive above others?

question: Sea levels fell during what time period that spanned from 163 million to 145 million years ago?

question: The increase in sea levels closed up which sea?
context: The Late Jurassic spans from 163 million to 145 million years ago. The Late Jurassic featured a massive extinction of sauropods and Ichthyosaurs due to the separation of Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana in an extinction known as the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction. Sea levels rose, destroying fern prairies and creating shallows in its wake. Ichthyosaurs went extinct whereas sauropods, as a whole, did not die out in the Jurassic; in fact, some species, like the Titanosaurus, lived up to the K-T extinction. The increase in sea-levels opened up the Atlantic sea way which would continue to get larger over time. The divided world would give opportunity for the diversification of new dinosaurs.

qas: question: What was the general rainfall in the Triassic?
answers: text: dry

question: What could have made temperatures more extreme?
answers: text: Low sea levels

question: Because of distance form the sea and wide variance in temperatures, what was the interior of Pangaea like?
answers: text: desert

question: What were there periods of during the Triassic?
answers: text: increased rainfall

question: What was the Carnian Pluvial event?
answers: text: increased rainfall

question: In what period was it consistently rainy?

question: What caused the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event?

question: Why was the Carnian Pluvial event especially dry?
context: The Triassic was generally dry, a trend that began in the late Carboniferous, and highly seasonal, especially in the interior of Pangaea. Low sea levels may have also exacerbated temperature extremes. With its high specific heat capacity, water acts as a temperature-stabilizing heat reservoir, and land areas near large bodies of water—especially the oceans—experience less variation in temperature. Because much of the land that constituted Pangaea was distant from the oceans, temperatures fluctuated greatly, and the interior of Pangaea probably included expansive areas of desert. Abundant red beds and evaporites such as halite support these conclusions, but evidence exists that the generally dry climate of the Triassic was punctuated by episodes of increased rainfall. Most important humid episodes were the Carnian Pluvial Event and one in the Rhaetian, few million years before the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event.

qas: question: What was the dominant plant species of the Mesozoic?
answers: text: gymnosperms

question: What is an example of a gymnosperm?
answers: text: conifers

question: What are the dominate plant species on Earth now?
answers: text: angiosperms

question: When did the Ginkgo evolve?
answers: text: Mesozoic

question: What famous tree species is believed to have evolved during the Mesozoic?
answers: text: Sequoia

question: What plant species died out in the Mesozoic?

question: Ginkgo species died out in what period?

question: What are the most at risk species on Earth now?

question: What land species died out in this period?
context: The dominant land plant species of the time were gymnosperms, which are vascular, cone-bearing, non-flowering plants such as conifers that produce seeds without a coating. This is opposed to the earth's current flora, in which the dominant land plants in terms of number of species are angiosperms. One particular plant genus, Ginkgo, is thought to have evolved at this time and is represented today by a single species, Ginkgo biloba. As well, the extant genus Sequoia is believed to have evolved in the Mesozoic.