Page 12 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)

Changing

Introduction planet

If you were to travel back in time to the Mesozoic
Era—the age of dinosaurs—Earth would seem like

an alien world. The continents had different shapes,
the climate was hotter, and strange prehistoric
plants covered much of the land. Dinosaurs and
their prehistoric relatives ruled this world for nearly 251–200 million years ago
200 million years. The vast span of time is divided
into three different periods, each with its own
distinct animal and plant life: the Triassic, the

Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.

Horsetail

Coelophysis

Ginkgo

Shonisaurus

Moss

Triassic world
At the start of the Triassic Period, the continents were joined
in a single supercontinent called Pangea. Its interior was
desert, but the climate was wetter near the coast, allowing
forests of ginkgo trees and giant horsetails to grow. The first
Placerias dinosaurs—small, two-legged meat-eaters—appeared in the
Triassic. They coexisted with stocky, tusked, plant-eating
10 animals such as Placerias—a relative of early mammals.

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