Study Guide. Dinosuars. “C” IN THE CLASS. Nothing Less Man.

Exam 3 Review Topics
(i.e. highlights)
Chapter 10
Dino World
CLIMATE CONTROLLED
Changing Sea Levels
Crustal Collisions
Continental Movement - controls ocean circulation
Sea Level High (transgression):
Continents greater warmth and humidity
Ocean water stores heat from sun (1 cal/gm)
Greenhouse climate results
Sea Level low (regression):
Continents lesser warmth and humidity
Drier and more temporate
Icehouse? climate results
Each interval of Earth’s History - Specific plate configuration therefore own specific climate
Triassic: Relatively dry and strongly seasonable
Jurassic: Wetter and more equable
Cretaceous: Global greenhouse climate
Pangea
Gondwana
Laurasia
Late Triassic
Few mts. and mts.
No glaciers or cold
Snowy winters
Computers monsoonal
Monsoonal - two seasons (one very wet the other dry)
Abundant rainfall in the summer months
Little annual temperature fluctuations
Large land masses just north and south of the equator
Northern Hemi. - relatively hot; Southern Hemi. - relatively cool, reversed throughout the year, hemisphere-wide wet and dry seasons.
Oceans warm and shallow
Clams and snails very abundant Ammonoid Cephalopods Sharks, heavily scaled bony fish Plesiosaurs Ichthyosaurs
Plants different than present-day
Gymnosperms - exposed seeds
Angiosperms - flowering plants
Early to Middle Jurassic
Vast deserts (west US)
Dominated by footprints
Lack of exploration
Fossil record incomplete
Dinos most successful group
Monsoonal - still present
Highly arid climates in parts of Pangea Western US covered by sand sea
Dinos and other Verts:
Dinos dominate
Large amphibians disappear
Dinos are the large beasties
Smaller animals -