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The Mesozoic is one of four (sometimes more) geologic eras. The division of time into Eras dates back to the 19th century.

The Mesozoic includes three Geologic Periods; from oldest to youngest, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. It extended from roughly 245 million years before present to roughly 64 million years. It followed the Paleozoic Era and preceded the Cenozoic Era.

The Mesozoic covers the time when life was dominated by large sophisticated reptiles. The lower (oldest) boundary is set by the Permian extinction. The upper (youngest) boundary is set at the Cretaceous extinction.

Geologically, the Mesozoic starts with almost all the Earth's land collected into a supercontinent called Pangaea. During the Era, Pangaea split into the northern continent Laurasia and the southern continent Gondwana. Laurasia then split into North America and EurasiaEarth Eurasia is the combined land mass of Europe and Asia. Eurasia is alternatively considered to be a continent, or a supercontinent composed of the continents of Europe and Asia. Due to the perceived cultural differences between Asia and Europe by Euro. Gondwana broke up progressively into four continents: South AmericaSouth America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. South America is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It became attached to North America only recently, geologically speaking, wi, AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20. 3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for ar, AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count and Antarctica.

The Mesozoic is known as the Age of Dinosaurs. It also saw the development of early birds and mammals, and of flowering plants ( angiosperms). At the end of the Mesozoic, all the major body plans of modern life were in place although in some cases—notably the mammals—the forms that existed at the end of the Cretaceous were relatively primitive.

1 See also

2 References and further reading

British Mesozoic Fossils, 1983, The Natural History Museum, London.