420-71 Million Years Ago
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Devonian Period
417-354 Million Years Ago
(www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=13)
The Caledonian mountains formed
in the early half of this period.
(DD-EVTT, p.21)
The heyday of the brachiopods was
the Devonian period when they occupied the sea floor in amazing numbers.
(DD-EVTT, p.250)
In Devonian time the early simple
growths of plants were joined by the first fern-like plants.
(DD-EVTT, p.246)
By the early Devonian the
Appalacian ocean had been completely squeezed out of exis-tence in the
north.
(DD-EVTT, p.226)
Floating or swimming creatures,
such as graptolites, were plentiful in the Cambrian, Or-dovician and
Silurian seas, but together with other shallow-water planktonic forms
of life they became extinct in the Devonian.
(DD-EVTT, p.251)
In the Devonian there was a
veritable explosion of the scaled and finny. Perhaps the riv-ers and
lakes of the new Devonian continents became accessible at a time when
the fish had reached a point in evolution where they could adopt to
non-salty waters.
(DD-EVTT, p.254)
Earth movements throughout early
Paleozoic times occurred frequently in Europe and North America and
reached a climax in the Devonian. Known as the Caledonian orogeny, this
climax was accompanied by the intrusion of granites and widespread
alteration of the old geo-synclinal sediments. Resting upon the eroded
stumps of the Caledonian rocks are the Old Red Sandstone formations.
Boulder and pebble beds, sands and clays derived from the underlying
formations, these beds contain the remains of strange and armored
fresh-water fish.
(DD-EVTT, p.197)
The land area that arose in the
North Atlantic region has been called the North Atlantis or the Old Red
Sandstone continent. It spanned what is now the North Atlantic but
perhaps the lines along which it would break in the Mesozoic were
already established.
(DD-EVTT, p.237)
A continuation of the Caledonian
orogeny along the maritime coast of Canada is called the Acadian earth
movement.
(DD-EVTT, p.236)
Nearly all the continent of N.
America was covered by transgressive seas in the Ordovi-cian and the
Devonian, and again in the Cretaceous.
(DD-EVTT, p.171)
In eastern Australia a large
mobile best lasted until the Permian period. This, the Tas-manian
geosyncline, experienced many disturbances and volcanic episodes
alternating with quiet periods.
(DD-EVTT, p.240)
415 Mil The lighthouse at Peggy's
Cove in Halifax, Canada, stands on granite boulders of this age.
(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.T8)
415-360 Million In Devonian strata from Greenland in
1948 there was found the fossil, Ich-thyostega, the earliest and most
primitive of known fossil amphibian.
(E&IH, 1973, p.125)
412-354 Million The Devonian. Placoderms, fishes with
armored heads and trunks were abun-dant during the Devonian but died
out towards the end. They moved their tails from side to side and
included Dunkleosteus.
(NH, 6/96, p.24)
400Mil BC Scientists in 2004 reported that an insect
fossil named Rhyniognatha, found in Scotland in the 1920s, dated to
this time and speculated that it had wings and could fly.
(SFC, 2/12/04, p.A2)
400Mil BC Scientists in 2006 reported that an armored
fish from this time called Dunkleosteus ter-reli grew up to 30 feet,
weighed as much as 4 tons, and used its powerful toothless jaws to tear
food apart.
(SFC, 11/29/06, p.A6)
400Mil BC Fossil remains of coelacanth fish have been
identified in deposits dating back nearly 400 million years. The fish
has a rostral organ in its skull, a feature similar to one that sharks
use to detect the weak electric fields given off by their prey. Living
specimens in 1938 were caught off the coast of East Africa and in 1998
were caught in Indonesian waters. The females were found to bear live
young following internal fertilization.
(NG, 6/1988, p.833-834)(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A2)
400Mil BC The evolutionary path of sharks and humans
parted about this time.
(NH, 9/96, p.40)
400Mil BC Subduction of the Pacific plate under the
American continent formed the Kalmiopsis wil-derness in southeastern
Oregon.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T8)
400Mil BC Astronomers in 2002 identified a binary
black hole from this time that resulted from the collision of 2
galaxies and blended to form NGC6240.
(SFC, 11/25/02, p.A6)
400Mil BC-300Mil BC Mid Paleozoic:
Laurasia formed about this time consisting of North America, Greenland,
the Baltics, France and Siberia.
(www.historyoftheuniverse.com/cd300.html)
400Mil BC-300Mil BC Pan-African orogenies. This
period of transformation almost doubled the stable crust in Africa. The
previously separate cratons and the newly heated and compressed
moun-tain root regions between them were fused into a single shield.
Apart from small areas in the north-west, south-east and the Cape
region, the continent had achieved the outline we know today.
(DD-EVTT, p.148)
390Mil BC In 2007 British scientists reported a
fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that was 8-feet long,
making the entire creature the biggest bug ever. The fossil was from a
Jaek-elopterus Rhenaniae, a kind of scorpion that lived only in Germany
for about 10 million years.
(AP, 11/20/07)
385Mil BC A fish species later called Panderichthys
lived about this time.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.79)
383Mil BC In 2004 paleontologists found fossils of a
primitive fish, named Tiktaalik roseae, on Ellesmere Island in Canada’s
Nunavut territory that dated to about this time. The fossils showed
evidence of ribs, neck, rudimentary ear bones and primitive limbs.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.79)
380Mil BC Reconstruction from fossils of North
American Devonian reef formations of life on a coral reef shows:
sponges, corals, lampshells, snails, trilobites, sea lilies,
octopus-like cephalo-pods, together with fronds of seaweed and moss
animals.
(DD-EVTT,illustr.#17)
380Mil BC Creatures with four limbs began to appear.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.B1)
380Mil BC In 2008 scientists traced the origin of
fingers and toes to fish-like creatures that roamed the seas about this
time.
(AFP, 9/21/08)
380 Million The oldest known insect fossils are tiny
imprints of wingless insects found in sandstone rocks of the
mid-Devonian period dated to this time.
(www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/fossil.htm)
Middle Devonian Slowly did the sea make its way back
into the continental interior of North Amer-ica. After this slow start
the flooding began to quicken so that in middle Devonian time it
reached across the interior around the Canadian Shield. Only the
Transcontinental Arch, the Ozark Dome and other minor regions were not
covered. To the west the shallow waters spread over an area that began
to warp gently into one of the most remarkable of shelf basins, the
Wil-liston Basin. The deposits of the Williston Sea gave rise to oil
and gas in huge quantities that were preserved in the porous reef rocks
and limestones close at hand.
(DD-EVTT, p.175-176)
Real forests
of lush plants with well-developed leaves and fronds had taken root by
the Middle Devonian, and at the end of the period were reaching 7
meters or more in height, towering over a thick underbrush of ferns,
mosses, liverworts and other smaller plants.
(DD-EVTT, p.246)
375 Million Coralville Lake in Iowa, USA, overflows a
spillway in 1993AD and bares fossils beneath the soil downstream of
creatures of the Devonian period. The fossils indicate that the area
was under water during this period.
(NG, Geographica, Jan, 94)
375Mil BC In 2006 scientists reported the discovery
of a predator fossil fish dating to this time in Nunavut, Canada. It
was later named Taiktaalik roseae and further analysis found it to have
de-veloped a mobile neck, an important development for living on land.
(SFC, 10/16/08, p.A10)
370 Million Devonian corals are now known to have
secreted skeletons of calcium carbonate, cal-cite, in a very regular
way., adding tiny rings of it to the top of their skeletal cup as they
grew. The daily increments of regular measure repeat in units of 400
rather than 365. At that time the day would have bee 21.9 hours long.
(DD-EVTT, p.110)
There were protozoans by the
millions. Only when they, too, developed a hard case of calcium
carbonate late in the Devonian period did they bequeath something of a
fossil record. The blankets of sediment from these tiny animals
accumulated with the corals and crinoids to give us the limestone of
today.
(DD-EVTT, p.251)
370 Million Similar corals found in both Morocco and
New York indicate that the two areas were neighbors at this time.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.52)
370Mil-290Mil The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny from
Alabama to Newfoundland in eastern North America, Britain, mainland
Europe, and coastal north-west Africa. This was another
geosyn-cline-like belt.
(DD-EVTT, p.198)
365Mil BC Acanthostega, the oldest known tetrapod,
was later regarded as an early amphibian. It used its limbs to paddle
along the bottom of shallow bays and estuaries. It was about 2-feet
long and its limbs ended with 8 delicate fingers.
(NH, 6/96, p.39)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.79)
365Mil BC In 2008 scientists unearthed a skull,
dating to about this time, of the most primitive four-legged creature
in Earth's history, which should help them better understand the
evolution of fish to advanced animals that walk on land. The fossil
skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of the water-dweller,
Ventastega curonica, were found in Latvia.
(AP, 6/25/08)
365Mil-357Mil A 2nd known mass extinction occurred
near the end of the Devonian.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
LOWER CARBONIFEROUS: MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD 360-320 Million Years Ago
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)
360 Million Towards the end of the Devonian period
the seas drew back from the Gondwana super-continent.
(DD-EVTT, p241)
360Mil BC By late Devonian time some bony fish not
only undoubtedly had lungs, but also had stumpy or lobed fins, the
antecedents of legs. The 2-foot long ichthyostega from eastern
Greenland was among the 1st fish to move on land. Bony fish were
restricted to fresh water un-til about 55 million BC
(DD-EVTT, p.254)(SFC, 9/12/05, p.A4)(Econ, 1/27/07,
p.82)
359-345 Mil In 2005 it was reported that tracks of
4-legged terrestrial animals dated to this period were found at Nova
Scotia’s Bay of Fundy.
(NH, 2/05, p.p.16)
c355-344 Mil BP In 2002 it was reported that a 1971
fossil from Scotland, initially believed to be an extinct fish, was
actually a tetrapod, one of the earliest creatures to have walked on
land. It was identified as a member of the Whatcheeriidae family and
named Pederpes finneyae.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A3)
354-290 Million Carboniferous period. The first great
forests and amphibians appear. This period is broken into two parts for
N. America, the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian).
(www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=12)
Upper Carboniferous. Hylonomous
was one of the first reptiles. It resembled its amphib-ian ancestors
but laid its eggs on land. Its skull and limb girdles were more robust
than that of an amphibian. Its fossils are found in the Joggins
formation at the base of the upper carbonifer-ous in Nova Scotia.
(T.E.-J.B. p.30)
350 Million Time of the Caledonian orogeny in
Scotland.
(DD-EVTT, p.135)
350 Million The initial uplift that formed the Green
Mountains of the Appalachians took place about this time.
(NH, 7/96, p.54)
350 Million Plants first developed seeds about this
time.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A2)
350 Million Vertebrates colonize land. Edwin H.
Colbert (d.2001), paleontologist, later authored "Colbert’s Evolution
of the Vertebrates."
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, R. Gore, p.124)(SFC,
11/22/01, p.A29)
350 Million The oldest order of terrestrial
vertebrates, Caudata, can be traced back to before this time.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.36)
350 Million Cockroaches have survived basically
unchanged since this time. They represent 40% of the Permian insect
fossils in what has been dubbed the "Age of Cockroaches."
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 45)
c350-320 Million Romer’s Gap. The fossil record for
tetrapods was empty. [see 354-344 Mil]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A3)
350-270 Million The amphibians, newts, salamanders
and frogs are all that remain today of a group that became highly
successful and varied in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. The
rise of the insects provided a generous food supply. The amniote egg
allowed the animal to de-velop to a stage resembling a fully grown
adult gave freedom from the watery environment.
(DD-EVTT, p.254-255)
The first amniotes were small,
apparently secretive insect eaters. The remains of the earliest
representatives were found inside fossilized trunks of hollow Nova
Scotia logs.
(NH, 6/96, p.41)
Over vast area of the
Carboniferous sea floor the crinoids, the delicate, stalked,
flower-like group of echinodermata, lived by the millions, raising
their fragile calyces as much as a me-ter from the bottom.
(DD-EVTT, p.251)
From an atmosphere rich in carbon
dioxide the growth of the Carboniferous forests may have removed much
of it in exchange for oxygen.
(DD-EVTT, p.247)
In North America forests covered
about 260,000 sq. km. of the mid-continent; in Europe perhaps 100,000
sq. km.
(DD-EVTT, p.238)
Early in Carboniferous time the
North American continent seems to have slid quietly un-der the waves to
an extent scarcely matched before or since. For a very brief period
there was stagnation... and it became an expanse of dead, still water.
Slowly the waters became populous again... and from the North-west
territories of Canada to Mexico and from the Pacific ocean to east of
the Mississippi there was once again a shallow sea, the Madison Sea.
This was the last of the great Paleozoic floodings of the N. American
continent.
(DD-EVTT, p.178)
It was a period during which the
plant kingdom reached an unprecedented luxuriance. Periodic salt water
flooded coastal marshes and killed off the plant growth. Accumulation
of carbonaceous material settled over time to produce peat, lignite and
coal in turn. Multiple cycles of climate and or earth movement caused a
varying proportion of marine and non-marine sedi-ment to accumulate,
which can be measured and which suggest where land and sea lay. The
cycles are called cyclothems.
(DD-EVTT, p.178-181)
350-200 Million Glacial conditions during the
Permo-Carboniferous times laid down a series of rock sediment in all
the southern continents, Australia, Antarctica, India, Africa, and
South America. It is called the Dwyka series in Africa and occurs over
much of the country between the southern cape and the equator. In many
places they are 600 meters thick. A continental po-lar region answers
the demands nicely with glaciers carrying debris off radially from
around the pole.
(DD-EVTT, p.194)
The Gondwana glaciations and the
Glossopteris forests stretched into what is now east-ern India where,
again, the ice was moving northwards. In South and East Africa the ice
spread northwards as far as Lake Victoria on the present equator. There
may have been as many as five major glacial ages with warmer spells
between. Between the long cold periods, Glossop-teris forest occupied
the well-watered lower regions in South America as it did on the
eastern side of Gondwanaland.
(DD-EVTT, p.241)
As many as eleven successive old
moraine deposits, one upon another, are known in Australia. The
Paleozoic glacial chill may have lasted 20 million years.
(DD-EVTT, p.244)
345-320 Million Mississippian Period.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
345-280 Million A hypothesis was proposed by Gans et
al of the Univ. of Michigan that an oxy-gen pulse occurred during the
late Paleozoic. An increase of atmospheric oxygen concentra-tions from
15-35% may have lasted for about a 100 million years. Today the
atmosphere con-tains about 21% oxygen. The idea is supported by the
extraordinary number of new species documented during this period. A
dense atmosphere would promote insect flight and primitive lung
effectiveness.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.20)
345-230 Million Mississippian, Pennsylvanian,
Permian. Bear Valley Ranch in Inverness ridge: Quarry, white limestone.
Road cuts 12 miles south of Carmel along Highway 1: white limestone.
Road cuts between Big Sur and Lucia along Highway 1: mica-rich
metamorphic rocks. Meta-morphic rocks of Calaveras Formation at the
Geologic exhibit along Yosemite Highway 6 miles east of Briceburg.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
330Mil BC The body impressions of salamander-like
creatures, estimated to be 330 million years old, were later found in
sandstone rocks collected in eastern Pennsylvania and stored in the
museum in Reading, Pa.
(AP, 10/30/07)
UPPER CARBONIFEROUS: PENNSYLVANIAN PERIOD 320-280 Million Years Ago
(E&IH, 1973, p.42)
320 Million Reversing Falls in the Bay of Fundy, New
Brunswick, Canada, dates to this time and is where at high tide surging
salt water reverses the fresh water of the St. John River up 48 feet at
high tide.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T7)
320-280 Million Pennsylvanian Period.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
320-240 Million The male Y and female X chromosomes
evolved from ordinary chromosomes over this period.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A11)
315Mil BC In 2007 scientists dated plant and insect
specimens from a limestone cave in Illinois to about this time.
(www.livescience.com/animals/070504_chicago_cave.html)
310 Million Animals developed that produced eggs with
watertight membranes that allowed repro-duction on land.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.B1)
310 Million The common ancestors of birds and mammals
diverged about this time. A report in Na-ture, Apr 30, 1998, traced
development back using a "molecular clock."
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A1,13)
300Mil BC Indiana was a sea floor upon which rained
the skeletons of fossils that later formed into limestone.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
300Mil BC The waters of the Rio Negro rise in the
Guinea shield of northern South America, which is more than 300 million
years old.
(Hem, 9/04, p.32)
300Mil BC The fossil record later indicated that
cycad plants have been around since at least this time.
(SFC, 11/14/07, p.G2)
300Mil BC The Helicoprion (spiral saw), a
cartilagenous fish with a tooth whorl, inhabited the seas around this
time.
(NH, 3/1/04, p.76)
300-250 Million Evidence of widespread former
glaciers occurs in strata of this age in eastern South America,
southern Africa, India and Australia. Similar evidence occurs in
Antarctica. This suggests that all these continents were formerly parts
of a single continent which broke into pieces.
(E&IH, 1973, p.93)
Late Carboniferous Much of southern Africa and the
other southern continents was capped by an ice sheet of gigantic
proportions in the late Carboniferous. Between glacial spells of the
Carbonif-erous, the Glossopteris and other trees covered the land.
(DD-EVTT, p.178)
290 Mil A small lizard, later
named Eudibamus cursoris, became the 1st to run on 2 legs. It lived the
Laurasia continent and was discovered in 2000 in Germany.
(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A1)
290 Million If there had ever been a Paleozoic
proto-Atlantic it would seem to have been closed up by about 290
million years back.
(DD-EVTT, p.198)
Permian Period 290-248 Million Years Ago
(www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/permian/permian.html)
Lower Permian Red Beds in Texas
and Oklahoma have fossils of the fin-backed reptile, Dimetrodon, which
belong to the group called pelycosaurs. They were probably the first
stage in the development of mammals from reptiles. These meat eater had
teeth of different sizes, long at the front and short in back. The
sail-like fin was probably was probably an early stage in the
development of warm-bloodedness.
(T.E.-J.B. p.33)
c285 Mil The southern part of the Appalacian ocean
and the Hercynian ocean were closed in the late Carboniferous and
Permian periods.
(DD-EVTT, p.226)
280 Million Early Permian in mountains near Las
Cruces, New Mexico, where a tidal flat at the edge of an inland sea
allowed fossil footprints to form and leave tracks of over 50 different
animals.
(NG, March 1990, Geographica)
270-210 Million The Karoo Basin in South Africa,
first took shape in the late Carboniferous and lasted about 60 million
years. It is filled with fluvial, lake and swamp deposits including
coals. At the end of this period were great outpourings of basalt in
the region, when lava flows covered much of the basin to a depth of
1,000 meters, the Drakensberg lavas.
(DD-EVTT, p.164,184)
On top of the glacial formations
comes a coal measure sequence. The Ecca formations are about 1800
meters in total thickness and contain many beds of thick coal. These
were de-posited in the Permian.
(DD-EVTT, p.182)
This basin subsided beneath layer
upon layer of sedimentary deposits. At least 7000 meters of continental
sediments were deposited here between late Carboniferous and
mid-Triassic times.
(DD-EVTT, p.178)
270-225 Million Reptiles arrived during the Permian
period.
(DD-EVTT, p.21)
Only a few species of trilobites
were alive in the Permian period and none are known from later rocks.
(DD-EVTT, p.249)
In Permian times there was a
progressive drying up of the whole continental area (of Gondwanaland).
Wide areas of the old shields in Australia and South America were
flooded by the shallowest of seas, and when from time to time these
were cut off and desiccated, deposits of dolomite, anhydrite and salt
were left behind. The ice persisted later in Australia where it stayed
till late Permian time.
(DD-EVTT, p242)
The Appalachian orogeny seems to
have been concentrated into the Permian period in North America. The
fierce volcanic activity widespread in Europe was not extended into the
west. All of Europe and North America became land. In central Europe
and parts of Russia, in the high Arctic areas of Canada and Siberia and
parts of the southern USA there were limited shallow, very salty seas.
Coral and algal reefs and shell banks sprang up in some parts of the
seas, notably in Texas and new Mexico, and in the lagoons deposits of
gypsum and salt were precipitated.
(DD-EVTT, p.240)
Upper Permian Beaufort sandstones
of South Africa have fossils of the mammal-like reptile Lycaenops. Its
body was dog-like with its legs under its body. It had long killing
teeth at the front and shearing teeth at the back. It was a large group
with size ranging from a few cm. to some as large as a cow. The larger
ones tended to be plant eaters.
(T.E.-J.B. p.34)
270-180 Million Wandering over the Permo-Triassic
countryside were different kinds of mammal-like reptiles that did not
survive the Triassic period. Mesosaurus, a small aquatic reptile, is
pre-sent in Permian rocks in both South Africa and South America.
(DD-EVTT, p.196)
260 Million The earliest dicynodonts known are from
remains discovered in Russia and South Africa and date back to this
time. They were the first vertebrates to have become diverse and
efficient herbivores. They were the first to evolve sliding jaws for
crushing plant tissue. The contempo-rary sail-finned pelycosaurs were
also herbivores but they could only chop off pieces of plants and bolt
them down.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.52-53)
260-250 Mil In 2005 scientists reported that a steady
decline in the number of living species occurred during this period
followed by a sudden plunge 250 million years ago. The interval
corre-sponded to a period of prolonged volcanic activity over a third
of Siberia.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.A4)
260-240 Mil In 2005 scientists reported that
plummeting oxygen levels over a period of 20 million years directly
contribute to the “Great Dying” centered around 250 million years
earlier.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A2)
255 Million At the end of the Permian a total of 35
dicynodont genera are known to have existed.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.54)
c255 Million Most of some 25 groups of distinctive
echinoderms perished before the age of dino-saurs.
(NH, 12/98, p.41)
255 Million Proganochelys, the most primitive turtle
known, appeared in the Triassic at about the same time as the earliest
dinosaurs.
(NH, 6/96, p.38)
255Mil BC-63Mil BC The Tethys Sea separated a
northern super continent (Holarctica) from a south-ern super continent
(Gondwana) through much of Mesozoic time.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)
253Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported finding
cellulose dating back to this time, along with some possible ancient
DNA, in salt crystals from an underground nuclear waste dump in
southern New Mexico.
(AP, 4/14/08)
252Mil BC The worst mass extinction in Earth’s
history occurred about this time. 90% of Permian genera of sponges,
corals and brachiopods vanished. 70% of land animals disappeared within
a million years due to a suspected asteroid impact. This was later
called the "Permian-Triassic Extinction" and "The Great Dying."
Scientists later suspected that an eruption of flood basalt in Russia,
the Siberian Traps, caused the massive extinction. In 2004 scientists
suggested that the extinction was caused by a meteorite that hit the
north coast of Pangea, forming a crater known as the Bedout High, later
a part of the Australian continent. In 2005 evidence was pre-sented
that the extinction was caused by massive and prolonged volcanic
activity. [see 260, 225 and 200 mil]
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.78)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A1)(SFC,
1/21/05, p.A4)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.100)
250Mil BC In 2006 an apparent crater as big as Ohio
was found in Antarctica. Scientists thought it was carved by a space
rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth about this time.
(www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060601_big_crater.html)
250 Million Onychophorans, velvet worms, become land
dwellers and survive today in dark, moist habitats like the floor of
the Costa Rican forest. Probably related to the Burgess shale
Ay-sheaia. The onychophorans are among the few animals other than
mammals with placentas, and give live birth.
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, R. Gore, p.136)
250 Million Coiled tubes in the 250 million year old
rocks of the Karoo region of South Africa indi-cate the presence of
Diictadon galeops, a far-distant relative of mammals. The adults were
the size of small dogs with long slinky bodies and are thought to have
made the burrows along river banks for brooding. They belonged to a
group of animals known as dicynodonts, and most were squat,
barrel-bodied, lumbering beasts that ranged from rat to hippo size. The
Karoo region at this time was a vast plain crisscrossed by rivers the
size of the Mississippi.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.50,52)
250 Million The fossil of the first known reptile to
fly, Coelurosauravus jaekeli, revealed a membrane that stretched
between hollow rods that grew out from the skin on its sides. In every
other ani-mal that flies wing support draws on the normal skeleton.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A9)
250 Mil It was reported in 2000
that scientists had brought to life 4 strains of bacteria entombed in
salt crystals of New Mexico rock for 250 million years.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.A1)
250mil-200Mil The Chinle Formation of sedimentary
rock was laid down by rivers in much of New Mex-ico and Arizona during
this period. In 2007 scientists reported that fossil bones found in the
Chinle Formation indicated that dinosaurs and their early relatives
lived side by side for millions of years before the relatives died off
leaving dinosaurs to dominate.
(SFC, 7/20/07, p.A4)
250 Mil-Present Marine scientists say that 8 extinctions
occurred in the seas over this period at inter-vals of about 26 million
years.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, Z1 p.5)
c248 Million In 2003 Richard Ellis authored "Sea
Dragons," which focused on ocean life of this time.
(WSJ, 10/24/03, p.W8)
Triassic Period The 1st period of the Mesozoic
248-206 Million Years Ago
(www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/triassic/triassic.html)
Mesozoic Era 248-65 MILLION YEARS
AGO
(www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/mesozoic.html)
245 Million The reconstruction of a scene from this
period is featured and shows 2 grazing Lystro-saurus and a lurking
Moschorhinus in an environment of a fern and cycad lined river.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.47)
245 Million At the beginning of the Triassic, the
sole dicynodont genus that persisted was Lystro-saurus.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.54)
245Mil BC Researchers in 2006 said floodwaters likely
overflowed river banks in parts of Antarctica about this time, sending
water and sand across the landscape and into various animal homes, such
as burrows. No animal bones or remains were found inside the burrows,
suggesting the burrow dweller must have escaped the deluge. The
burrows' sizes and shapes, along with as-sociated scratch marks, are
nearly identical to tetrapod burrows found in South Africa also dat-ing
to the Triassic.
(http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42393)
c230 Million It was reported in 1999 that dinosaur
fossils, found 4 years earlier in Madagascar, might be the oldest
known. The creatures were long-necked prosauropods from about this time.
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.A1)
230Mil BC The Panthalassa Ocean covered much of what
later became the western United States. Sediments later called the
Luning Formation were deposited in what later became the mountain
ranges of central Nevada. Fossil ichthyosaurs included Shonisaurus
popularis.
(NH, 6/01,
p.22)(www.shgresources.com/nv/symbols/fossil/)
230 Mil BP A long-necked dinosaur called
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, dated to this time, was dis-covered in
China in 2004. Scientists speculated that the long neck might have
functioned like a vacuum to suck up unsuspecting fish.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.A2)
228 Million Paleontologist Paul Sereno led a team in
the Andes that discovered a small dinosaur species called Euraptor.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-3)
225Mil BC Icthyosaur fossils first found in 1928 by
prof. Seimon W. Muller of Stanford 150 miles SE of Reno, dated to this
time. An inland sea linked to the Pacific and submerged California and
Nevada during the Triassic.
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.T10)(www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0849392.html)
225 Million A 3rd known and most violent mass
extinction ended the Paleozoic Era. Some 95% of all species vanished
including the trilobites. This was the time that Pangea formed with
declin-ing sea levels and massive volcanic eruptions. [see c251 &
200 mil]
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)
225-65 Million BP Dinosaurs were both numerous and
varied in California. In 2003 Richard P. Hil-ton authored “Dinosaurs
and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California.” California was under water
at the beginning of the Mesozoic (255-63). By the end of the era
roughly the eastern third of the state had emerged.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.26)(CW, Winter 04, p.51)
220Mil BC In Kyrgyzstan the fossil of a birdlike
reptile from this time was found around 1970. The reptile was named
Longisquama insignis and its evolution appeared to precede the
develop-ment of dinosaurs. The imprint of feathers and hollow shafts
related it to modern birds. The feather imprints were later claimed to
just thick scales.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A14)
220Mil BC Eomaia scansoria (eomaia = dawn mother), a
primitive shrewlike creature, may have diverged from the monotremes and
marsupials about this time. [see 125 Mil]
(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A2)
220Mil BC Bacteria and single-celled animals and
plants from this period became encased in tree resin on the northern
edge of the Tethys Ocean. Scientists in 2006 studied the organisms in
amber of this time from a town in the Italian Dolomites. Ciliates and
amoeba in the amber ap-peared identical to modern examples.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.84)
215 Mil BP The rocks of northern Tennessee began to
bend under the pressure of continental colli-sion. Oil migrated from
deep in the earth into cracks and folds in the rocks.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W4)
210 Million By the end of the Triassic after 50
million years on Earth, the dicynodonts were gone. Most likely
climactic changes that caused increased aridity as Pangea drifted
northward toward the equator led to their demise. Only the distant
cousins, the cynodonts, left descendants.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.54)
210Mil BC Scientists in New Mexico in 1947 uncovered
fossil rock from this period. In 2005 a close examination revealed that
the fossils looked like a 6-foot long, 2-legged dinosaur. It was named
Effigia okeeffeae and identified as a reptile, an ancient relative to
modern alligators and croco-diles.
(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A2)
210Mil BC The Plateosaurus, a peaceful herbivore
measuring up to 10 meters from head to tail, roamed river deltas in
large herds about this time, when most of Switzerland was covered with
desert and its landscape may have looked much like the estuary of the
Nile now.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
208Mil BC-142Mil BC The reptile called a
Thalattosuchian roamed a tropical environment in Asia about this time.
The amphibious creature represents an early milestone in evolutionary
history, mark-ing a transition during which these reptiles moved from
being semi-aquatic to wholly ocean species. Scientists In 2007
uncovered the remains of the six- to eight-foot-long reptile in
Juras-sic rock on private property in the Snowshoe Formation of the
Izee Terrane, a rock formation in Oregon. The rock-entombed animal
migrated eastward via continental drift.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/070321_jurassic_croc.html)
Jurassic Period 206-144 Million Years Ago
(www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=9)
In 1996 a Jurassic dinosaur
fossil was found in a limestone block in Saltrio, Italy, near the Swiss
border. The saltriosaur, a 3-fingered, meat-eater, was 26.4 feet long
and weighed over a ton.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A14)
Almost all the road cuts in San
Francisco: sandstone, shale, chert, dark igneous rock, serpentine date
to the Jurassic. Roads north of Golden Gate and in Mt. Tamalpais State
Park: sandstone, shale, chert, basalt. Skyline Drive from Milbrae
turnoff south to Woodside: Sand-stone, shale, dark igneous rock,
serpentine. Mariposa slates near Mariposa in the Sierra Ne-vada.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
202 Million A mass extinction occurred. In 1999 it
was reported that a titanic volcanic eruption oc-curred about this time
and split an ancient super-continent. This process began the formation
of the Atlantic Ocean. Half of all marine species died in a few million
years. [see 252 and 225 mil]
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A3)(Econ, 11/8/03, p.78)
200 Million Teleosts, ray-finned fishes, first
evolved.
(NH, 6/96, p.37)
200 Million Quarter-inch-long saw flies were members
of a family that remained unchanged since this time.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.43)
c200 Million A fossil of the winged Icarosaurus
siefkeri reptile of this time was found in a black shale New Jersey
quarry in 1961. It was sold at auction in 2000 for $167,500 and donated
to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A1)
198 Million In 2002 scientists presented research
that indicated a cataclysm about this time in the Triassic due to a
comet or asteroid that killed of species competing with dinosaurs.
Iridium de-posits and fern spores were cited as evidence.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A6)(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
c195 Million A tiny animal the size of a paper clip
from fossil beds in China’s Yunnan province dated to this time. It was
named Hadrocardium wui in 2001 and was considered as a possible
ances-tor to all living mammals.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.D8)
190Mil BC In 2008 scientists discovered numerous
dinosaur footprints dating to this time at the Vermilion Cliffs
National Monument along the Utah and Arizona state border.
(SFC, 10/22/08, p.A4)
190Mil BC A 4th mass extinction
occurred at the end of the Triassic. Lake Manicouagan in Quebec, a
60-mile crater, was formed by a cosmic impact that may be related to
the extinction. Coty-losaurs, a possible missing link between mammals
and reptiles, were lost.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)
190Mil BC Dinosaur embryos from this time were
unearthed in South Africa in 1973. They be-longed to a plant-eating
group called prosauropods named Massospondylus (bulky vertebrae) first
discovered by Richard Owen in 1854.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.A2)
180 Million Fish shared the seas with marine
crocodiles and plesiosaurs and were hunted by winged pterosaurs.
(NH, 6/96, p.41)
180-135 Million The plesiosaurs were a group of
swimming reptiles that developed early in the Jurassic into to main
lines, the elasmosaurs and pliosaurs. The elasmosaurs were described by
Dean William Buckland as "snakes threaded through turtles." The
pliosaurs had big heads with short necks and their bodies reached
immense sizes. The pliosaur Peloneustes lived rather like today’s
toothed whales, feeding mainly on large cephalopods.
(TE-JB, p.53)
180-135 Million Pangaea, however, was short-lived.
With the extension of the great ocean, Tethys, it split into Laurasia
and Gondwanaland. Then in Jurassic and Cretaceous times the At-lantic
ocean made its appearance while Gondwana broke up further.
(DD-EVTT, p.226)
180-135 Million A branch gulf had begun to open and
edge north-western Spain away from Brit-tany. There was new growth of
the ocean floor between North America, South America and Af-rica. Much
of the western half of the continent was flooded by shallow seas.
(DD-EVTT, p.264)
180Mil BC-135Mil BC Along the western coastal area of
North America it seems likely that for part of the time there was a
long, narrow island running parallel to the edge of the continent from
Alaska to Mexico. Dinosaurs and marine reptiles have left their bones
in this region. The Ne-vadan orogeny was now under way.
(DD-EVTT, p.266)
180-135 Million In Antarctica there is a Jurassic
legacy of volcanic rocks and some sand-stones remarkably full of plant
remains.
(DD-EVTT, p.268)
180-135 Million Great piles of volcanic lavas and
ashes in parts of western North America and around the Red Sea occur
from the Jurassic.
(DD-EVTT, p.258)
180-135 Million The Mesozoic reef builders did not
appear until as late as the Jurassic in most parts of the world.
(DD-EVTT, p.246)
180-135 Million Along the eastern seaboard of Brazil
and the west coast of Africa are several thick deposits of late
Jurassic and early Cretaceous date. The sedimentary characters and
fos-sils (ostracods, tiny active creatures with a bivalve shell) in
these rocks indicate bodies of fresh water.
(DD-EVTT, p.197)
180-135 Million During the Jurassic period the shells
of the ammonites grew in some cases to 50 or 60 cm. and were
strengthened and corrugated by all manner of ribs, ridges and knobs.
(DD-EVTT, p.277)
180-135 Million The more efficient pterodactyls or
pterosaurs of the Jurassic had wing mem-branes supported by the
tremendously long fourth fingers.
(DD-EVTT, p.280)
180-70 Million BP Dinosaur fossils of this age were
later found in the El Chocon region of Patago-nia, Arg. They included
the plant-eating Gasparinisaura.
(NG, 12/97, p.123)
175 Million The EETA 79001 meteorite, identified to
be from Mars, was estimated to be this age and blasted from Mars into
space about 600,000 years ago.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A16)
170 Mil BC In 2004 scientists reported the discovery
in Antarctica of primitive sauropod, a plant-eating dinosaur, from this
time.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A2)
170Mil BC In northern California magma burbled up
through older, softer rock and formed a granite pluton. Wind and water
over the next 100 million years scrubbed the area which later became
known as Castle Crags.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.G8)
170Mil BC The semi-aquatic platypus is thought to
have split off from a common ancestor shared with humans approximately
about this time. In 2008 scientists laid bare the platypus genome of
2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500 genes.
(AFP, 5/8/08)
166Mil BC Monotremes split off from ancestral mammals
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
165Mil BC Scientists in 2005 announced that tracks of
a previously unknown swimming dinosaur have been found along the shores
of an ancient sea in Wyoming. The tracks reveal an event when a
six-foot-tall, two-legged dinosaur waded into the inland sea and
gradually lost touch with the ground. It was about the size of an
ostrich, and it was a meat-eater.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/051017_swimming_dino.html)
165Mil BC Middle Jurassic Oxfordian Beds have fossils
of Metriorhynchus. It was a marine croco-dile of the group
Thalattoschia. Its legs had become swimming paddles and its body had
be-come long and sinuous. It did not have bony plates and its tail
flattened out at the end to sup-port a triangular swimming fin.
(TE-JB, p.42)
165Mil BC Madagascar broke away from the continent
of Africa. [see 160 mil BP]
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.A10)
164Mil BC In 2006 a fossil from
this time found in Inner Mongolia in China was reported to have been a
mammal with a flat, scaly tail like a beaver, vertebra like an otter
and teeth like a seal that swam in lakes eating fish. The new animal,
about the size of a small female platypus, is not related to modern
beavers or otters but has features similar to them. The researchers
named it Castorocauda lutrasimilis.
(AP, 2/23/06)
163 Mil BC-144 Mil BC Rhamphorhynchus, a crow-sized
flying reptile species, had a 3-foot wing span and 4-inch skull and
lived in Europe during this period.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A5)
160Mil BC A crested dinosaur with probable feathers
inhabited northwestern China about this time. A fossil of the 10-foot
long relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, later named Guanlong wucaii, was
found in 2004.
(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A1)
160Mil BC Madagascar broke away from the continent
of Africa. [see 165 mil BP]
(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.W6)
160Mil BC A collision likely occurred in the asteroid
belt orbiting the sun about 100 million miles from Earth. One of these
asteroids was later named Baptistina. In 2007 US and Czech re-searchers
used computer simulations to calculate that there was a 90 percent
probability that the collision of two asteroids, one about 105 miles
wide and one about 40 miles wide, was the event that precipitated the
Earthly disaster of 65Mil BC, when an asteroid hit the Earth on
Mex-ico’s Yucatan peninsula. They said another fragment likely created
the Tycho crater on the moon at about 110Mil BC.
(Reuters, 9/5/07)(SFC, 9/6/07, p.A14)(Econ, 9/8/07,
p.81)
155Mil BC-150Mil BC In mid-Jurassic rocks of Germany
occurred the very rare remains of the first bird, Archaeopteryx. It was
about the size of a dove, had a long, reptile-like tail but with real
feathers, not scales, and it possessed teeth in its beak. The first
Archaeopteryx fossil turned up in 1862.
(DD-EVTT, p.280)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.101)
154Mil BC Holger Luedtke, an amateur fossil hunter,
found in 1998 the fossils of small dinosaurs in a quarry in Germany’s
Hartz mountains. They were later identified as a new species from this
time and named Europasaurus holgeri.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)
152 Mil BC In 2004 a Swiss paleontologist said
hundreds of dinosaur prints dating back this time had been discovered
in the Jura mountains in the northwest of Switzerland.
(AFP, 10/11/04)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Oxford Clay has fossils of
Cryptocleidus, one of the smaller of the elas-mosaurs, swimming
reptiles with snaky necks.
(TE-JB, p.53)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Oxford Clay has fossils of
Opthalmosaurus, an ichthyosaur that became very dolphin-like. It had
huge eyes that were supported by a ring of bone that helped it
with-stand changes in pressure. Detailed remains show that it gave
birth to live young. It had no teeth and it is supposed that it caught
slow-moving or sleeping prey.. Skin tissues indicate that it was
tortoiseshell colored.
(TE-JB, p.57)
150 Mil BC In 1861 upper Jurassic lithographic
limestone at Solenhofen, southern Germany, was found to have fossils of
Archaeopteryx, the feathered dinosaur. It had teeth in its jaws, claws
on its wings and a long bony tail. Its bones were hollow and light but
its muscles were weak and it was not a very good flyer. Aerodynamic
analysis in 1999 indicated that Archaeopteryx could possibly run to 5
mph and flap enough to glide for some 100 yards.
(TE-JB, p.61)(Hem., 10/97, p.130)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A8)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Lithographic Limestone of
Bavaria and south-east France has fossils of Compsognathus. It was a
small, meat-eating, coelurosaur dinosaur. It had three toes on long
hind legs and two fingers and was the size of a domestic hen.
(TE-JB, p.58)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic lithographic limestone at
Solenhofen, southern Germany, has fossils of Pterodactylus, a
pigeon-sized descendant of Podopteryx. Its wings were supported on
elon-gated and thickened fourth fingers. The effective area of each
wing could be controlled by the spread of the hind limbs. The body and
limbs were covered by a fine fur indicating some sort of body heat
control. A more primitive group was the Rhamphorynchoidea, which had
narrower wings and a long stiff tail. Pterosaurs were widespread and
have been found on all continents except Antarctica. Pterodaustro
scooped plankton from the water. Anurognathus ate insects. Dimorphodon
ate meat. Pteranodon caught fishes.
(TE-JB, p.62)
150 Mil BC A small dinosaur later named Juravenator
starki inhabited southern Germany. It was found near Solnhofen and was
similar to coelurosaurs in China, but did not show signs of feath-ers.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A5)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in
Colorado has fossils of Apatosaurus, once known as Brontosaurus. Its
name means headless lizard because early specimens lacked a head. It
roamed forested plains and swamps in herds but probably spent most of
its time in shallow wa-ters. Tiny peg-like teeth were used for water
weeds. It reached 20 m in size and weighed as much as 30 tons. A head
was finally found in 1979 and was found to be quite long and slender.
O.C. Marsh, paleontologist, described a large dinosaur in 1877 that he
called Apatosaurus ajax (deceptive lizard) based on a newly discovered
vertebral column. In 1879 he discovered the bones of a larger beast
that he named Brontosaurus (thunder lizard). In 1903 Elmer Riggs showed
that Apatosaurus was just a younger Brontosaurus.
(TE-JB, p.64-65)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Par p.12)
150 Mil BC A small, chipmunk-sized mammal named
Fruitafossor windscheffeli lived in Colorado. It developed heavy
forearms for digging in the ground to feed on insects and termites.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.A4)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in Utah
has fossils of Diplodocus. Its 28 m length included a 14 m tail and an
8 m neck. It stood 4 m at its hips. Its vertebrae combined struts and
hollows making it light and strong. The rear feet had three claws and
the front had one. It was a plant-eater and also found near
Thermopolis, Wyo.
(TE-JB, p.66)(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T1,5)
150Mil BC In 2008 the Bureau of Land Management in
Utah announced a dinosaur find, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a
major dinosaur fossil discovery." An excavation revealed at least four
plant-eating dinosaurs and two carnivorous ones dating back to about
150 million BC.
(AP, 6/17/08)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in
Colorado and Wyoming has fossils of Ceratosau-rus. It is also found in
East Africa. It was a flesh-eating carnosaur that stood on two feet
with the body held forward and balanced by the long stiff tail. It had
a battery of fierce teeth, a horn on its nose, heavy ridges above the
eyes, and a jagged crest down the back. Great claws on the hind limbs
and smaller ones on the fore limbs were used to kill its prey which it
hunted in packs. It stood 6 m.
(TE-JB, p.58)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in
Wyoming has fossils of Coelurus, a member of the Coelurosauria. It had
three fingers and stood 2 m and was once called Ornitholestes
(bird-robber) for it is thought to have pounced after birds.
(TE-JB, p.70)
150 Mil BC Fossils of a sauropod named Suuwassea
emileae (ancient thunder) were found in southern Montana in 1998. It
was about 50 feet long and related to Diplodocus.
(SFC, 5/21/04, p.A2)
150Mil BC In 2005 archeologists in Montana worked to
unearth a sauropod believed to be from this time making it about twice
as old as most dinosaur skeletons found in the state. It seemed to
represent a missing link in the evolution of the sauropods.
(AP, 7/22/05)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in
Colorado has fossils of Stegosaurus. The array of plates down its back
were not attached to the main skeleton but only embedded in the skin
and could have lain flat or upright, in pairs or alternate. Their
function is not understood. It was 9 m long and stood 2.5 m at the
hips.
(TE-JB, p.73)
150 Mil BC Upper Jurassic Purbeck beds widespread in
England, Europe, Mongolia, N. Africa and N. America show fossils of
Iguanodon. It had a pointed beak and grinding teeth that indicate that
it was a plant-eater.
(TE-JB, p.74)
150 Mil BC In 1989 a fossil egg from this time in
Utah was found by CAT scan to contain the oldest dinosaur embryo.
(http://tinyurl.com/fme92)
150 Mil BC In 1999 Norwegian scientists discovered an
undersea meteor crater in the Arctic Ocean 125 miles north of Norway
that dated to this time. It measured 25 miles wide. The meteor was
estimated at 1 1/4 mile wide traveling at 18,600 mph.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A10)
150Mil BC In 2006 researchers in Norway announced the
discovery of the remains of a short-necked plesiosaur, a prehistoric
marine reptile the size of a bus, that they believe is the first
complete skeleton ever found. The 150 million year old remains of the
33-foot ocean going predator were found on the remote Svalbard Islands
of the Arctic. Researchers in 2008 said it was the biggest of its kind
known to science with dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite
a small car.
(AP, 10/5/06)(Reuters, 2/27/08)
150Mil BC In 2006 scientist reported finding
fossils of a large sauropod in Spain from this period. It was named
Turiasaurus riodevensis, and estimated to have weighed between 40 and
48 tons.
(AP, 12/21/06)
150Mil BC In 2008 scientists said footprints, dating
from about this time, showed sauropods travel-ing at the same speed
along a river in Yemen, the first discovery of dinosaur footprints on
the Arabian peninsula.
(AP, 5/21/08)
150 Mil BC-145 Mil BC Most of the dinosaur fossils at
Thermopolis, Wyo., were from this period. The area had a humid,
tropical climate with many streams. Diplodocus, Monolophosaurus, and
Camarasaur, a 60-foot-tall plant-eater, were some of the creatures
found.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T1,5)
148Mil BC Marsupials parted company with placental
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
146 Mil The great sauropods
dwindled by the end of the Jurassic, at least in North America, and
were supplanted by smaller ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs, such
as the hadrosaurs and ceratopsians.
(NG, 12/97, p.129)
145 Million Late in the Jurassic there was widespread
uplift along the west coast of South America, and it was a signal for
vigorous volcanic uproar.
(DD-EVTT, p.268)
145 Million The Late Jurassic ended as the
present-day continents began to split off from Pangaea.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-3)
145 Million Long necked dinosaurs, the sauropods,
dominated North America and ate large amounts vegetation. They
clear-cut large areas and left the land open to flowering plants and
low shrubs conducive to squat grazers.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A9)
145Mil BC The seas over Nevada receded.
(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A6)
CRETACEOUS PERIOD 145-65 Million
Years Ago
(www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=18)
142 Million In 1998 a fossilized flower was
discovered near Baipiao, China. It indicated pea pods containing seeds,
the fruit of a flower.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A2)
140 Million Masses of peridotite rock heaved onto the
sea floor from the earth’s crust about this time. It mingled with
seabed sediment and merged with an oceanic plate that slid toward the
Si-erra foothills and the Klamath region of northern California until
it hit the North American plate. The peridotite turned to serpentine
under pressure and rose to parallel the San Andreas Fault.
(CW, Fall ‘03, p.42)
140 Million A coelacanth fossil of this age was found
in a quarry in southern West Germany.
(NG, 6/1988, p.833)
140 Million Older [DNA] samples have been extracted
from amber--which dates back 140 million years.
(WSUAN, Fall/95, p.5)
140 Million The fossil record of the Chinese sturgeon
below the Gezhouba Dam on the Yangtze River dates back at least this
far.
(NH, 7/96, p.38)
140 Mil Fossils of feathered
birds, later called Confuciusornis, were found in 2002 in Liaoning
province, China. They had bird-like short tales.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A3)
140-120 Mil The Archaeoraptor Lianingensis, a
feathered dinosaur, lived about this time.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.D6)
140- 65 Million Cretaceous period.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
Road cuts along Route 28 in the
Vaca Mountains (Middle California) are: sandstone, shale and
conglomerate; road cuts in Niles Canyon are: sandstone and shale; the
Coast High-way between Devil’s Slide and Moss Beach: granite; Inverness
Ridge: granite.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
136Mil BC In 2006 scientist used DNA from spider
proteins trapped in amber, that dated to about 110 million BC, and
concluded that araneoid and deinopoid spiders evolved from a common
ancestor 136 million years earlier. Araneoids produce web strands with
sticky glue. Deinopoids produce dry but strong and entangling webs.
(SFC, 6/23/06, p.A8)
c135 Million In 1999 scientists reported that
flowering plants known as angiosperms began to thrive about this time
and that the shrub Amborella trichopoda was believed to represent the
earliest species of flowering plants.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A4)
135 Million In 1999 scientists led by Paul Sereno
reported that they had assembled the fossils of the dinosaur named
Jobaria tiguidensis, a 20-ton Sauropod with spoon-shaped teeth found in
the Sahara Desert of Niger.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A4)
135Mil BC A fierce marine crocodile, with a dinosaur
head and a fish-like tail, inhabited a vast southern ocean that covered
much of what became Argentina. Discovery of a fossil skull with 52
jagged teeth was reported in 2005 for a 12-foot specimen nicknamed
“Godzilla” and chico malo.” It was named Dakosaurus andiniensis.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 11/11/05, p.A1)
135 Million A meat-eating dinosaur species, named
Spinostropheus gautieri, inhabited Niger.
(LSA, Fall/04, p.9)
135-70 Million Cretaceous period.
Widespread seas. Coccoliths, tiny fossils composed of cal-cium
carbonate, in countless million make the pure whitish limestone
"chalk," are extremely widespread in to the early Cainozoic.
(DD-EVTT, p.21,illustr.#16)
The grasses did not arrive until
the Cretaceous period.
(DD-EVTT, p.275)
Nearly all the continent of N.
America was covered by transgressive seas in the Ordovi-cian and the
Devonian, and again in the Cretaceous.
(DD-EVTT, p.171)
Lower Cretaceous Wealdon Marls on
the Isle of Wright in England have fossils of Hypsi-lophodon. It was 2
m long and had bumpy lumps down its back. It had a pointed beak at the
front and grinding teeth at the back that indicate that it was a
plant-eater. Its leg structure indi-cates that it was well adopted for
running.
(TE-JB, p.74)
Lower Cretaceous Cloverly
Formation in Montana has fossils of Deinonychus. It was lightly-built,
able to run swiftly, and had a pair of sickle-shaped claws. It was 3 m
long and grouped remains indicate hunting in a pack. It walked on its
third and fourth toes only. The sec-ond carried a huge claw that could
be swung through a 180’. Its remains were found grouped around a plant
eating Tenontosaurus.
(TE-JB, p.77)
Africa, Arabia and India were
moving towards the Tethyan Trench and the Tethys ocean was narrowing
rapidly.
(DD-EVTT, p.268)
Both North and South America
reached western north-south trench system. The effects of this
encroachment were vigorous upheavals in which the Mesozoic ocean
sediments were transformed and began to rise as the great Cordillera.
(DD-EVTT, p.268)
The super-continent of Laurasia
had by the end of the Cretaceous almost ceased to ex-ist. As the
continents separated so, it seems, were they to suffer what possibly
were the most extensive transgressions to occur in Phanerozoic time.
(DD-EVTT, p.270)
East from Africa through Turkey,
Iran and into the site of the great Himalayas today, Tethys continued
uninterrupted.
(DD-EVTT, p.270)
130 Million Afrovenator abakensis, a 27 foot, hunter
(allosaurus) dinosaur thrived in the tropical paradise of what is now
the Sahara desert. The name means "African hunter from In Abaka," an
area of Niger where bones were found c1994.
A second dinosaur, a long-necked grazer, was 60 feet
long. It was a sauropod, akin to a bron-tosaurus, and similar to
animals that lived earlier in N. America and Asia.
(AP Las Vegas Review, 10-14-94, p.7a)(Video Doc. The
New Explorers, WTTW, Chicago, Skeletons in the Sand, Dr. Paul Sereno,
1994)
130 Mil BC Stegosaurus dinosaurs left footprints near
Broome, Australia. The herbivorous dinosaur was 9 feet tall and 26 feet
long with a double plated backbone and spiny tail.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)
130 Mil BC Ants emerged from earlier insect forms
with a distinct metapleural gland to fight off fungi and bacteria.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A2)
130 Million The fossil Sinovenator (Chinese hunter)
dated to at least this time. A member of the troodontid dinosaurs, it
was about the size of a chicken and represented a possible link to
birds. It was discovered in Liaoning province in 2002.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A6)
130 Million A small Tyrannosaurus rex from this time,
named Dilong paradoxus, was discovered in China in 2004 with evidence
that its body was covered in downy “protofeathers.”
(SFC, 10/8/04, p.A2)
130 Million A mammal called Repenomamus robustus
roamed China about this time. In 2005 it was reported that a fossil of
one, the size of an opossum, was found containing the remains of a
young 5-inch psittacosaur in its stomach.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A2)
130-120 Mil In 1996 it was reported that fossils bone
were found in a jungle streambed in northeast-ern Thailand of a 21 foot
tyrannosaur. It was named Siamotyrannus isanensis. The finding added to
evidence that tyrannosaurs evolved in Asia.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.C12)
128 Mil In 2003 scientists
reported a 4-winged, theropod dinosaur from China’s Liaoning prov-ince,
which they named Microraptor gui.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A2)
128-121 Mil Chinese paleontologists found the fossil
of a bird-like beast with the impression of feath-ers. The feathered
dinosaur, a therapod, was about 3-feet long in life.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A9)(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A2)
2 turkey-sized, fossil dinosaurs
with feathers were found in China in 1997 in Liaoning province. They
were distinctly older than archaeopteryx. The birds were therapods and
could not fly. They were named Protarchaeopteryx robusta and
Caudipteryx zoui.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.A4)
125Mil BC In 2004 Canadian geologists reported the
discovery of dinosaur tracks and a fossilized turtle shell, estimated
to be about 125 million years old, north of Terrace, British Columbia.
(Reuters, 9/21/04)
125Mil BC Eomaia scansoria, a tiny shrewlike
creature, lived in China’s Liaoning province. It was the earliest known
representative of the Eutheria lineage. It’s fossils led researchers in
2002 to believe that it might be the direct ancestor of true placental
mammals.
(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A2)(SFC, 12/5/02, p.A23)
125Mil BC In 2005 Farmers in Inner Mongolia found a
fossil of a small mammal from about this time that displayed evidence
of being able to glide. It was named Volaticotherium antiquius. Tests
for age ranged as far back as 164Mil BC.
(SFC, 12/14/06, p.A15)
125Mil BC The 12-foot dinosaur named Falcarius
utahensis of this time was discovered in 2005 in south central Utah
near the town of Green River. It was a primitive member of the
therizino-saurs found in fossil bed in China.
(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A2)
125-90 Mil In 1998 the discovery of the Suchomimus
tenerensis dinosaur was announced by Paul Sereno of the Univ. of
Chicago. It was found in the Tenere Desert of central Niger where a
vast lake was located at this time. The dinosaur was 36 feet long and
stood 12 feet high at the hip.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A3)
c124 Mil A meat-eating dinosaur called
Sinornithosaurus, dated to this time, was found in Liaon-ing province,
China, around 2002. The skin was covered with fibers but it had no
wings.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A3)
124-110 Mil The fossil of a full-fledged bird named
Jeholornis prima, found in 2002 in Liaoning prov-ince, China, was dated
to this time.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A3)
120Mil BC A new species of a carnivorous dinosaur
from this time was found in 1997 in southern England. At 26-feet it was
larger than a velociraptor but smaller than a tyrannosaurus rex.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)
120Mil BC The dinosaur Eotyrannus lengi roamed
Britain. In 2001 a 15-foot skeleton was discov-ered.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
120Mil BC The middle of what later became the USA was
covered by the Niobrara Sea.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A16)
120Mil BC A fossil of Protopteryx from this time in
China indicated feathers that were held to have evolved from scales.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D4)
120Mil BC Scientists reported in 2008 that a
sparrow-sized pterodactyl, which they named Nemi-colopterus crypticus,
inhabited China’s Liaoning province about this time.
(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A5)
120Mil BC In 2007 researchers from Karlsruhe's
Natural History Museum found a 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) ant in
the Amazon rainforest and dated its origin back to about this time,
making it the oldest still inhabiting the earth.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
115Mil BC Dinosaur bones from the Budden Canyon
Formation of western Shasta Ct., Ca., dated to this time of the
Cretaceous. It was a small bipedal herbivore about the size of a deer.
It seemed similar to a group known as hypsilophodonts, small a
primitive members of the subor-der Ornithopoda. The region was a
seafloor west of the coastline of this time.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.26)
115Mil BC In 2006 scientists identified two ancient
reptiles that swam in icy waters off Australia about this time. The
discoveries, dubbed Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes, belonged to a group
of animals called plesiosaurs, long-necked marine reptiles that lived
during the time of the dinosaurs. Both creatures lived in a freezing
polar sea that covered what is now Australia, when the continent was
located much closer to Antarctica.
(AP, 7/28/06)
115Mil BC In 2007 scientists reported that large,
carnivorous dinosaurs roamed southern Australia about this time, when
the continent was joined to the Antarctica. The 12-foot dinosaurs were
padded with body fat to survive temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees
Celsius. Their find-ings were based on fossil footprints.
(Reuters, 10/23/07)
113 Million A juvenile dinosaur fossil from Benevento
Province in southern Italy was discovered in the 1980s. It was named
Scipionyx samniticus and showed some preservation of soft parts. [see
110 Mil]
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A11)
112Mil BC-99Mil BC Most of Nevada was a flood plain and supported
dinosaurs including the raptor dromaesaur, sauropods, tyrannosauroids
and iguanodonts.
(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A6)
110 Million The ancestors of modern elephants began
emerging.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A13)
110 Million BP In 2002 a pterosaur fossil from this
time was discovered in Brazil that indicated it skimmed over water for
food and had a huge bony crest on its head.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A5)
110 Million The Australia Daintree rain forest of
North Queensland dated to this time.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C7)
110Mil BC In 2006 Chinese researchers reported nearly
complete fossils of Gansus yumenensis, a grebe-like waterbird from this
time, making it the oldest for the group Ornithurae.
(AP, 6/15/06)
110Mil BC The carnivorous dinosaur Microraptor
zhaoianus lived in China about this time along with the fish-eating
bird Yanornis martini. A forged fossil in 1999 linked the 2 as one
feathered dinosaur.
(SFC, 12/5/02, p.F2)
110 Million In Oklahoma the plant eating
Tenontosaurus roamed the area along with the meat-eating Deinonychus.
Fossils of both together were found in 1999.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A4)
110 Million Fossils of Sauroposeidon proteles, a
60-ton, 60-foot tall dinosaur, were found in 1994 near Antlers, Okla.
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A8)
110 Million Fossils of the Nigersaurus taqueti,
a plant-eating sauropod dinosaur from Niger, was reported in 1999
by a team led by Paul Sereno.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A4)
110 Million The giant Sarcosuchus imperator,
"flesh-eating crocodile emperor," lived about this time in what later
became the Tenere Desert of Niger.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D6)
110 Million A well preserved baby fossil of the
therapod Scipionyx from this time was later found in Italy. It was
reported in 1999 to have had a hepatic piston breathing system good for
sustained activity and swift movement. [see 113 Mil]
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A4)
110Mil BC In 2007 the fossils from Nigersaurus
taqueti, a dinosaur of this time with a strange jaw designed to
hoover-up food grazed in what became the Sahara Desert, went on display
in Washington, DC.
(AP, 11/16/07)
110Mil BC Univ. of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno
unearthed Kryptops palaios, a short-snouted, hyena-like beast, and
Eocarcharia dinops, a shark-toothed, bony-browed killer, during an
expedition in the Niger Desert in 2000. The fish-eating, sail-backed
Suchomimus or "croco-dile mimic," was found in 1997. The animals
originally lived in the southern landmass that was known as Gondwana.
(Reuters, 2/13/08)(AP, 2/14/08)
104Mil BC In 1914 Romanian Baron Franz Nopcsa
(1877-1933) found fossils of small dinosaurs in Romania that dated to
about this time in the Cretaceous period.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)
100Mil BC No deep ocean floor or volcanic oceanic
islands have yielded rock more than about this age.
(DD-EVTT, p.212)
100Mil BC Some microbe colonies became locked in
subterranean abodes and separated from the rest of life on Earth from
about this time or earlier. Bacillus infernus was later named as
repre-sentative of this group that can tolerate temperatures of 110-185
degrees F.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A10)
100Mil BC We can date the salt deposits to this time
and that may have been the time when the sea began to creep in between
the uplands of Africa and those of South America.
(DD-EVTT, p.197)
100Mil BC Australia split from Gondwana about this
time and began drifting north away from what is now Antarctica, pushed
by the expansion of a rift valley into the eastern Indian Ocean.
(AP, 6/8/06)
100Mil BC A snake, later named Wonambi, emerged in
Australia about this time. It was believed to have gone extinct about
50,000 BC.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A4)
100Mil BC The Brazilian state of Ceara was at the
bottom of a vast ocean whose sea floor was rich in phosphates. The
phosphates turned the carcasses of primitive, bony fish to stone in a
matter of days, before the natural decaying process set in. Calcite
nodules are so common in Ceara that they are used to pave roads. Inside
the nodules are some of the best preserved fossils in the world.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.5)
100Mil BC Pterodaustro, a freshwater pterosaur, flew
over a fresh water lake in what is now a cor-ner of the Argentine
province of San Luis.
(NH, 11/96, p.34)
100Mil BC Researchers estimate that the major orders
of birds and mammals evolved from about this time. They believe that
the breaking up of the ancient continents may have may have been the
major cause.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-7)
100Mil BC A report in Nature Apr 30, 1998, traced
mammals back to around 100 million years us-ing a "molecular clock."
[see 110 million]
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A1)
100Mil BC Dinosaurs native to Asia traveled about
this time over to North America according to fos-sil evidence in Utah.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A2)
100Mil BC Spinosaurus, a 55 foot, 8 ton dinosaur with
crocodile-like jaws lived during this time in Argentina, Morocco,
Tunisia, Algeria.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)
100Mil BC Africa became
geographically isolated about 100 million years ago.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-3)
100Mil BC In 2000 It was reported
that researchers had unearthed a pack of large predatory dino-saurs in
Patagonia that dated back to this time. The fossils were found in
Neuquen province and were named Mapusaurus roseae.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A1)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A3)
100Mil BC Land masses collided about this time and
created Alaska.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A2)
100Mil BC The oldest known penis is about 100 million
years old. It belongs to an ostracod, an early crustacean related to
crabs, shrimps and water fleas, and was found in a fossil sample
unearthed in Brazil.
(Reuters, 9/13/02)
100Mil BC About this time a cluster of stars crashed
into a larger cluster at about 5k km. per sec-ond. This was later
considered as the highest energy cosmic event since the Big Bang. Winds
generated by the collision created a bullet-shaped cloud of hot gas
later named 1E0657-556 (the bullet cluster).
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.65)
100Mil BC In 2008 astronomers witnessed the start of
an explosion of a star, about the same size in diameter as the sun,
that was only about 10 million years old. The supernova in galaxy
NGC2770 was about 100 million lights years distant. The observation was
made while observ-ing another star well into its death throes.
(AP, 5/21/08)
100Mil BC-84Mil BC During this period of the
Cretaceous temperatures rose to 38 degrees in the tropical waters off
Suriname, compare to 26-28 degrees in 2006.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.82)
100Mil BC-65Mil BC Late Cretaceous granites provided
the gold of the Mother Lode quartz veins. Erosion of these granites
released the mineral orthoclase and orthoclase-rich sediments and may
be observed today in roadcuts along California Highway 128 about 2.8
miles southwest of Monticello Dam on Lake Berryessa.
(GH-ADH, p.20)
98.4 Million In 1999 it was reported that ankylosaur
dinosaur (fused lizards) fossils from this time were found in Utah.
Fossils of the nodosaur, a primitive ankylosaur lacking a tail club,
were also found.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A2)
98Mil BC In Utah volcanic ash just above a large
deposit of fossils was dated to this time.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A9)
95Mil BC Gigantosaurus, a 47 foot, 8 ton dinosaur
with 8-inch-long serrated teeth lived during this time in Argentina.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)
95Mil BC A dinosaur fossil named Rugops primus (first
wrinkle face), unearthed in Niger in 2000, dated to this time. It
belonged to a group of southern dinosaurs called abelisaurids, also
found in South America, Madagascar and India and indicated the Africa
was still connected to Gond-wana at this time.
(AP, 5/30/04)
95Mil BC Fossils of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, a
meat-eating dinosaur from this time, was first found in Morocco in the
1920s. Better fossils were found in Niger in 1997. The upright-walking
creature grinned with a mouth full of banana-sized teeth, stood taller
than a double-decker bus and weighed more than two standard-sized cars.
"It seems that shallow seas di-vided Morocco and Niger, promoting
evolutionary separation of the species living in the two re-gions."
(www.livescience.com/animals/071211-big-dinosaur.html)
95Mil BC The 3-foot-long snake Pachyrhachis
problematicus lived in a shallow sea over Israel about this time. It
had short, well-developed hind limbs and may have been related to
mosa-saurs, giant swimming reptiles.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.C14)
94Mil BC Amber of this age has been found in the
Atlantic Coastal Plain of New Jersey.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.13)
94Mil In 2001 fossils of a large
sauropod were discovered in Egypt near the remote Bahariya oasis. A
Univ. of Pennsylvania team named it Paralititan stromeri (tidal giant
of Stromer) after a German scientist who had studied the area.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.A1)
93 Million From cliffs in the region Kem at the edge
of the Sahara in Morocco, paleontologist Paul C. Sereno and team
unearthed a 5-foot-4-inch skull of Carcharodontosuarus saharicus and
much of the skeleton. Previous fragments of this dinosaur had been
unearthed 50 years ago by German researchers, but the bones were
destroyed during World War II. Also found was the previously unknown
species of smaller carnivore they named Deltadromeus agilis (agile
delta runner). It was 27 feet long and would have weighed 3-4 tons.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-3)
92 Mil The New Jersey region was a moist, coastal
area of swamps, lagoons and cedar forests. In 1998 a 170 pound piece of
amber was found with hundreds of various insect species embed-ded that
included ants with a distinct metapleural gland that secreted acid for
killing fungi and bacteria.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A2)
90Mil BC The ancestors of modern horses began
emerging.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A13)
90Mil BC Mudstone of this age from Plaza Huincul in
Patagonia revealed fossil pieces in 1996 of the huge Megaraptor.
(NG, 12/97, p.134)
90Mil BC Scientists in 2005 announced the discovery
in Argentina of a rooster-size fossil named Buitreraptor gonzalezorum.
It dates back 90 million years and closely resembles fossils from the
North. It was part of the class called dromaesaurs believed to have
originated 180 million years ago in Laurasia. The new find was evidence
that dromaesaurs originated in Pangea, be-fore it broke apart to form
Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/051012_new_dino.html)
90Mil BC The Baurusuchus salgadoensis lived in an
area of southeastern Brazil known as the Bauru Basin, some 700
kilometers (450 miles) west of modern-day Rio de Janeiro. The
fossil-ized skeletons appear to be closely related to another ancient
crocodile species, the Pabwehshi pakistanesis discovered in Pakistan.
(AP, 6/9/05)
90Mil BC The fossil of a snake that lived in
Patagonia at this time was found in 2006 with 2 small rear legs. The
snake, under 3 feet long, was named Najash rionegrina.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A2)
90Mil BC-89Mil BC The granite of Montara Mountain on
the San Francisco peninsula and the granite of the Farallon Islands
have been shown by radioactive potassium dating to be about 90 million
years old.
(GH-ADH, p.20)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.E3)
90Mil BC-70Mil BC Paleontologists in 1997 found an
area in Patagonia, Arg., over a mile square that was once a dinosaur
nesting site of this period. Fossilized embryos revealed a delicate
skin of reptilian scales.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A4)
88Mil BC In 2000 Scientists in Argentina began
uncovering the skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur
species, a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs
ever found, has been uncovered in Argentina. They named it
Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and
"chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the
skeleton's excavation. The skeleton dated to 88 million years BC.
(AP, 10/15/07)
85Mil BC Tylosaurus, a predatory marine lizard, on
exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.
(NH, 6/96, p.33)
85Mil BC The ancestors of modern cows began emerging.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A13)
85Mil BC In 2005 Chinese researchers discovered a
bird-like dinosaur that lived about this time. The feathered but
flightless Gigantoraptor erlianensis weighed about 1.4 tons and had a
beak but no teeth.
(Reuters, 6/13/07)
85Mil BC-65Mil BC California dinosaur fossils of the
Cretaceous have been found in the Moreno and upper Panoche Formations
of western Fresno Ct., the Point Loma Formation near San Diego, and the
Ladd and Williams Formations of Riverside Ct. These include the
Saurolophus, a large bipedal "duckbill" dinosaur.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.28)
c84Mil BC Garnet-rich crustal rock called eclogite
formed below an area that later became the Si-erra Nevada of California.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.A4)
c84-82 Million In 2000 scientists reported that the
Earth tilted as much as 16-21 degrees over this pe-riod when vast
chunks of crust dove deep into the viscous mantle.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A3)
80Mil BC Scientists in 2005 reported that,
titanosaurian suaropods, plant eaters from this time, dined on a
variety of grasses previously believed to have evolved 10 million years
after dino-saurs disappeared.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A4)
80Mil BC Dinosaurs roamed the Sierra foothills. A
therapod bone fossil was found in Placer Ct. in 1997, in a geological
region called the Chico formation. Here sediment was laid down by the
Pacific Ocean whose tides washed the cliffs of the Sierra Nevada.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A1)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous terrestrial siltstones and
sandstones in Big Bend National park, Texas, has fossil of
Quetzalcoatlus. It is the largest known Pterosaur with a wingspan of 12
m. It was probably a scavenger and was covered with hair.
(TE-JB, p.81)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Judith River and Two
Medicine Formations in Montana have fossils of Palaeoscincus. It was
squat, tank-like, with heavy armor over the back and spikes projecting
from the sides. It was 5m long, broad and sprawling. It belongs to the
group Ankylosauria, one of the four sub-orders of Ornithiscia. Two
other were Silvisaurus and Scolosaurus.
(TE-JB, p.58)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation in
Montana has fossils of Tyrannosaurus. It stood 12m and could only take
short steps due to its leg joint and foot structure. It had 15cm long
teeth that were saw edged, thin, and easily broken. All this indicates
that it was most likely a scavenger. Its skull was loose jointed and it
could dislocate its jaws like a snake and gulp down great chunks of
meat. In 2002 computer modeling limited its speed to 25 mph at most.
(TE-JB, p.89)(WSJ, 2/28/02, p.A1)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation in Montana,
Wyoming and S. Dakota has fossils of Pachycephalosaurus (bone-heads).
They stood on two feet and were herbivorous. They had a dome-like
development on the skull made of solid bone. it was most likely used in
combat as a battering ram. It stood 5m and had spikes on its nose and
around the back of its skull.
(TE-JB, p.91)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation in Wyoming,
Colorado, Montana and Saskatche-wan has fossils of Triceratops. It was
the largest and one of the last of the ceratopsians. it had three long
horns on its head and a solid bone shield that swept backwards over its
shoulders. They were plant-eaters with hooked beaks.
(TE-JB, p.58)
80Mil BC A Cretaceous era creature known as the
maiasaur roamed what is today the northern United States. Multimedia
simulations by the Royal Ontario Museum have brought the creature back
to life.
(Wired, Dec. '95, p.58)
80Mil BC Fossil eggs and embryos of titanosaurs and
apatosaurus of this age were later found in the Patagonian badlands of
Argentina.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D8)
80Mil BC A land-bound reptile, described as a
possible link between prehistoric and modern-day crocodiles, roamed
arid and hot terrain that became Brazilian countryside about this time.
A fossil of Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi was found in 2004 and
displayed in 2008.
(AP, 1/31/08)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Oldman and Edmonton
formation in Alberta, Canada, has fossils of Struthiomimus. It was
typical of the "ostrich dinosaurs," the last of the coelurosaurs. Their
fore-legs had three-fingered grasping hands. The body was long,
horizontal, and balanced by a long rigid tail.
(TE-JB, p.58)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Oldman Formation at Red
deer River, Alberta, Canada, has fossils of the crested duck-billed
Lambeosaurus. It had a massive array of grinding teeth, strong hind
legs with three toes tipped with hoofs and stood 7 m. The smaller front
legs had four toes, two of which had hoofs. There were webs between the
fingers and its tail was flattened from side to side. Other crested,
duck-billed dinosaurs include Corythosaurus, Saurolophus, and
Para-saurolophus. Nests of Maiasaura discovered in Montana in 1979 have
a number of young an advanced stage of development that indicate adult
supervision of the young.
(TE-JB, p.58)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Bahairia Formation in Egypt
and Niger have fossils of Spinosaurus. It had fins on its back
supported by strong spines projecting up from the vertebrae. It was the
largest of the fin-backed dinosaurs and the spines were about 1.8 m
long.
(TE-JB, p.78)
80Mil BC Caverns at the Grutas de Cacahuamilpa
National Park south of Mexico City date to this time.
(SFC,11/3/97, p.A10)
80Mil BC An eighty million-year-old egg was found in
Mongolia’s Gobi desert by paleontologists who claim it is the first
embryo ever found of a meat-eating dinosaur called oviraptor. A report
on the discovery appears today in the journal Science.
(WSJ, 11/4/94, p.1)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A6)
80Mil BC Bones from a velociraptor in Mongolia’s Gobi
desert indicated that the dinosaur had a wishbone. The wishbone, fused
collarbones, later provided attachment points for muscles that allow
birds to fly. Also found was a placental mammal with epipubic bones,
structures that had been only associated with marsupials and
monotremes. In 2007 scientists reported evidence of feathers on the
velociraptor uncovered in 1998.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A20)(Reuters, 9/20/07)
80Mil BC The Ukhaa Tolgod basin of Mongolia had
fossils from the late Cretaceous. The site was first discovered by Roy
Chapman Andrews during his 1923 Gobi Desert expedition. The 25-foot
tall, 85-foot long Nurosaurus qaganesis was of this period.
(THM, 4/27/97, p.L4)
80Mil BC The fossil record later indicated that palms
have been around since at least this time.
(SFC, 11/14/07, p.G2)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC Late Cretaceous to Early Cainozoic.
80Mil BC-70Mil BC The Laramide orogeny of the late
Cretaceous was largely responsible for the major features in the
structure of the Western Cordillera.
(DD-EVTT, p.291)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC The north-west
states of Washington, Idaho and Oregon at this
stage became the site of a flood of basalt lavas from many local
fissures. By the time it was over, some 1500 meters of lava flows had
accumulated, covering about 512,000 sq. km.
(DD-EVTT, p.291)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC It might be said that for South
America the orogenic crunch came in the late Cre-taceous. At that time
the giant bathyliths of the Andes were intruded and the whole region
was raised.
(DD-EVTT, p.292)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC Only one family of flowering plants
is known from the earliest late Cretaceous, but by the end of that
period at least 67 families existed.
(DD-EVTT, p.281)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC South-west of Delhi and covering
much of the north-western half of the Indian shield are thousands of
square kilometers of flat-lying floods of late Cretaceous and early
Cai-nozoic basalt, the Deccan traps.
(DD-EVTT, p.146)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC During India’s passage northward
its western margin seems to have crossed a hot spot on the crust. This
resulted in the release of floods of basalt over the western part of
the subcontinent.
(DD-EVTT, p.288)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC The Mesozoic era closed with the
continents apparently emerging from the wa-ters once again.
(DD-EVTT, p.270)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC To what extent climactic change set
off the train of extinctions at the close of the Mesozoic era is
uncertain. The cycads and about half the species of early flowering
plants died out and the conifers began to extend their realm little by
little from the cooler areas. Floating, single-celled, algal plants
became very abundant and secreted the minute limey platelets, known as
coccoliths, which built up as chalk. Their photosynthetic activity may
have tilted the abundance of the atmosphere in favor of oxygen and
depleting it of carbon dioxide generating a reverse "greenhouse effect."
(DD-EVTT, p.273-274)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC Among the typically Paleozoic
groups to fade away at the end of the Mesozoic were certain large
protozoans or foraminifera, the trilobites, the strange segmented
eurypterids, the rugose corals, many bryozoa, echinoderms and
brachiopods.
(DD-EVTT, p.275)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC By the end of the Mesozoic the
ammonites became extinct and only a few spe-cies of their hardy but
possibly more primitive relatives, the nautiloids, survived.
(DD-EVTT, p.277)
80Mil BC-70Mil BC The squid-like belemnites together
with some families of bryozoa, echinoids and floating foraminifera all
disappeared.
(DD-EVTT, p.281)
78Mil BC A dinosaur species of this time, later found
in Canada and named Albertaceratops nes-moi, was a plant-eater
with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary
mid-dle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the
small-horned creatures that followed.
(AP, 3/4/07)
77 Million In 2005 it was reported that
paleontologists had identified a new dinosaur species, an early
relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that roamed what is now the Southeastern
US about this time. The scientists made the identification from
hundreds of fossilized fragments collected mostly in Montgomery County,
Ala., and southwestern Georgia. They named the new dinosaur
Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means "the Appalachian lizard
from Montgomery County." The 25-foot-long creature roamed the earth 10
million years before T. rex and was smaller and more primitive, with a
narrower snout.
(AP, 4/16/05)
76 Million The Point Loma Formation near Carlsbad,
CA., contained a nodosaurid, a quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur with an
extensive covering of bony armor.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.30)
75 Million The Birthday Site of northwestern Montana
features 3 types of hadrosaurs: the Pro-saurolophus, the Gryposaurus,
and the Hypacrosaurus. The Daspletosaurus (a 30-foot carnivo-rous
dinosaur) and the human sized Troodon were also here. The site was
shallow lake water and the array of bones indicates some type of
catastrophic event.
(NH, 4/97, p.66)
75 Million In 1994 the fossil of a birdlike dinosaur
was found in Montana. It was about 3 feet long and weighed about 7
pounds. It was named Bambiraptor feinbergi.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A10)
75 Million The ornithominids of this time were
long-necked, birdlike dinosaurs that evolved beaks with comb-like
structures to strain nutrients from water.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.A4)
c75 Million BP The 30-foot dinosaur Majungatholus
atopus lived here. Its fossils were discovered in 1996. It was similar
to creatures whose fossils were found in Argentina and India. The
horned dinosaur was a remote cousin of T. rex and had sharp serrated
teeth. In 2003 scientists deter-mined that 2-ton, 30-foot creatures
were cannibals.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A2)(SFC, 4/3/03, p.A2)
75-71 Mil Fossils from Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia,
of this period later provided the richest assem-blage of vertebrates in
the world.
(NH, 7/00, p.51)
75-50 Million Teleost diversity exploded over this
period.
(NH, 6/96, p.37)
74 Million BP In the Manson Impact a meteorite hit
what is now Manson Iowa at an estimated 60,000 mph and formed a crater
24 miles wide with an impact 3 1/2 miles deep.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)
72Mil BC A helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur lived
about this time in northeastern Mexico. In 2008 the species was named
Velafrons coahuilensis.
(AP, 2/12/08)
71 Million The Earth's continents were clustered
together and sea level was much higher. The At-lantic Ocean was small,
the Pacific was enormous and covered half the Earth. The Tethys Sea, a
shallow, salty body of warm water separated the northern and southern
hemispheres. Enri-quetta Barrera, using evidence from one-celled
foraminifera, has found indications of a gradual high-latitude cooling
and a rapid and sharp decrease in deep ocean temperatures in
conjunc-tion with a 150 foot drop in sea level. This lasted about a
million years, when sea levels went back up.
(MT, Dec. '95, p.7)
Go to 70 Mil BP