PALEO200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Mesozoic, Radiometric Dating, Shocked Quartz

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Paleontology
• Course: PALEO200
• Professor: Angelica Torices

Document Summary

Extinct: when all the individuals of a species are gone. Exceptions to some species that last much longer or go extinct much faster. Using these figures, one species should go extinct every year just from natural causes: most recent mass extinction was at the end of the cretaceous, that wiped out all the non-avian dinosaurs. Ammonites and sea living mosasaurs also went extinct. Champsosaurs and multituberculate mammals survived only to become extinct millions of years later: birds had already become diverse and well established. Adaptive radiation after end-cretaceous extinction: pterosaurs: largest flying animals to ever have evolved but did not survive, mammals (survived end-cretaceous extinction) Multituberculus mammals: small isolated teeth (now extinct) Crocodiles and turtles were common before and after mass extinction (both inhabit freshwater environments) Much of the mesozoic, forests were dominated by conifers; flowering plants started to become dominant plants in forests: near end of cretaceous, Champsosaurs survived the end-cretaceous extinction were went extinct.