Mesozoic Era

What happened during this time?

Flora

• Coralline red algae appear

• Most pteridophytic plants decrease in prominence across the landscape (e.g. arborescent clubmosses and horsetails)

• Pleuromeiales survive during the Triassic and modern lycophytes, Lycopodiales, Selaginellales, and Isoetales survive throughout the Mesozoic 

• Modern ferns diversify during Mesozoic: Cyatheaceae tree ferns, Osmundaceous, Matoniaceous, and Dipteridaceous ferns

• The ancestral zygopterid ferns survive into the Early Cretaceous 

• Modern horsetails, such as Equisetum, appear in the Triassic

Seed plant diversification

• Glossopterids  and Peltasperms survive into the Triassic and then go extinct

• Corystosperms flourish throughout Mesozoic

• Diversification of ginkgophytes during Jurassic and Early Cretaceous

• Domination of Voltziales and modern conifers during Jurassic

  • Araucariaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, Pinaceae, Podocarpaceae, Taxaceae, and Cupressaceae

  • Cheirolepidaceae dominates in low latitude areas

• Cycads common throughout the landscape

• Diversification of the cycad-like Bennettitales which dominate in low latitude areas

• Strange gymnosperms, such as the Caytoniales, Pentoxylales, and Czekanowskiales appear and go extinct in the Mesozoic

• During the Early Cretaceous period, the first angiosperms appear

  • Forests evolved to look similar to present-day forests, with oaks, hickories, and magnolias becoming common in North America by the end of the Cretaceous.

Fauna

• Archosaurs dominate during Early Triassic

  • Pterosaurs appear, the first flying vertebrates on Earth

  • Appearance of dinosaurs (archosaurs) around 243 Ma (Nesbitt et al. 2013)

• Therapsids also dominate during Triassic

  • Cynodonts, dicynodonts, and gorgonopsids are present

  • First true mammals (therapsids) evolve from cynodonts appearing during the Late Triassic

• Domination of dinosaurs (saurischian)

• First squids and birds

• First frogs and salamanders

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• New kinds of dinosaurs appear

  • First ceratopsian

  • First pachycepalosaurid dinosaurs 

• First fossils of many insect groups

• Modern mammal groups arise

• Birds evolve from therapod lineage

• Extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and ammonites