Browsing the "Mesozoic" Category

The Mesozoic era, meaning “middle life”, is a division of earth’s history spanning from around 252 to 66 million years ago. It is subdivided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The beginning of the Mesozoic is characterised by a long phase of recovery following the end Permian mass extinction. The end of the Mesozoic is marked by the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs among other groups.

Blog

Walking in the Footsteps of Dinosaurs

Published on September 22nd, 2019 | by Guest Blogger

The recent discovery of a dinosaur trackway site on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, provides insight into “a day in the life of a bunch of dinosaurs just loitering about, 170 million years ago” according to [&hellip... Read More


Cretaceous

Episode 101: Organic Preservation of Dinosaur Bone

Published on July 1st, 2019 | by David Marshall

Fossilisation of organic material was long thought to result in the complete loss of original content. However in the last 20 years, several high-profile publications reported the discovery of proteins, blood vessels, blood cells and even [&hellip... Read More


Blog

A Look at Prosauropods: The Forgotten Dinosaurs

Published on May 28th, 2019 | by Guest Blogger

As with most children who are fascinated by dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus were amongst the first dinosaurs I learnt of. But as I grew older, another group of dinosaurs began to pique my interest, a [&hellip... Read More


Cenozoic

Episode 96: Decapods

Published on January 1st, 2019 | by David Marshall

Decapods are a group of crustaceans that include such well-known families as crabs, lobsters and shrimp. Whilst crustaceans are known from as early as the Cambrian, we don’t see the first decapods until Devonian. Over the [&hellip... Read More


Mesozoic

Episode 92: Squamate Origins

Published on May 30th, 2018 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone

Squamates are a group of reptiles that include lizards and snakes, with the earliest fossils occurring in the Jurassic, despite molecular studies dating the group back to the Triassic. The study of their origins has been [&hellip... Read More


Cretaceous

Episode 91: Dinosaurs of Appalachia

Published on May 24th, 2018 | by David Marshall

The Appalachian mountains, span the Eastern margin of the United States of America. They are predominantly composed of Paleozoic rocks, but Mesozoic marine sediments (formed adjacent to the Appalachian continent at the time) can be found [&hellip... Read More


Cretaceous

Episode 90: Ichthyornis

Published on May 3rd, 2018 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone

Bird evolution has long fascinated palaeontologists. Despite crown-group birds (birds giving rise to modern lineages today) evolving during the Cretaceous, there are relatively few fossils from this time, making it difficult to understand this key time [&hellip... Read More


Back to Top ↑