What did the planet look like during the time of the dinosaurs?

The way the continents are positioned today is quite a bit different to the way they were during the time of the dinosaurs. In fact, the continents changed a few times during the Mesozoic. They even had different names than they do today. Places like North America or Africa didn't exist as they do today. The continents were once all together as one and slowly moved into the positions they are in today.

In the beginning of the Mesozoic, during the Triassic Period, this one large continent was called Pangea. This land mass was formed by the end of the Permian period, just before the age of dinosaurs. The end of the Permian marked one of the planets great extinctions. Throughout the life of our planet there have been five great extinctions. The latest being at the end of the Cretaecous period marking the end of the dinosaurs. In each of these extinctions, well over 50% of all life on the planet becomes extinct. And after each mass extinction, our planet has had to start over with mostly new life forms.

So, at the beginning of the Triassic, we start life over again. The animals and plants that were abundant during the Permian give way to new life forms in the Triassic. One of these forms that is important to our discussions is the appearance of the first dinosaurs.

To the east of Pangea is the Tethys sea. The climate at this time was mostly warm with some of the inner parts of the continent being arid. During this period a group of animals called archosaurs was beginning. The name means ruling reptiles. It included birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs as well a pterosaurs (flying reptiles, non dinosaurian) and large marine animals (also not dinosaurs). Plant life consisted of cycads, ferns and conifers. By the end of the Triassic, Pangea began to break up into two separate land masses: Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south.

This brings us to the next period in the Mesozoic Era, the Jurassic. This is where dinosaurs really begin to flourish. By the end of this period, dinosaurs will have evolved into some of the largest animals to ever walk the earth. The single continent has now split into Laurasia and Gondwana. The seas have spread and se levels have risen. Plant life was similar to that of the Triassic, only more abundant and more varied and some becoming quite large and wide spread like conifers. In the seas, clams, sponges, corals, crustaceans were flourishing. As well as large marine animals such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pliosaurs. In the air, pterosaurs like pterodactyls filled the skies. On land, huge herbivores had evolved such as sauropods like brachiosaurs, apatosaurs, and camarasaurs. As well as stegosaurs, iguanodons, and carnivores like allosaurs were very common.

By the Cretaceous period, the land masses looked very much as they do today. Temperatures on land and in the seas began to rise. The biggest advancement in plant life was the beginnings of flowering plants. Probably evolved to prevent being devoured by the ever increasing herbivore populations. Dinosaurs produced some more well known examples such as Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Ankylosaurus. The latter two developed some very serious armor and defense mechanisms. Pterosaurs also brought out the big guns by producing some, like quetzalcoatlus, which had a wingspan of over 40 feet.

That gives us a general overview of the Mesozoic Era, the time of the dinosaurs. There are places today that still resemble the climate and landscape of this time, but there are no dinosaurs around any longer. Only their relatives: crocodiles and birds.