Word: pangaea
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...have seemed absurd to suggest that dinosaurs would soon inherit the earth. At the time, they were inconsequential creatures, perhaps the size of dogs, living among far more imposing giant crocodiles and other reptiles. During Triassic times, the continents were stuck together in a single mass that scientists call Pangaea. The planet was warmer and rainier than it is today -- ideal conditions for the growth of vast forests along coastlines and adjacent to rivers. Conifers, horsetails, tree ferns and ginkgos were the dominant vegetation. Giant 3-ft. dragonflies whirred through the air, and 18-in. cockroaches scuttled along the forest...
Earlier mass extinctions, 440 million to 210 million years back, are attributed to the breakup and drift of the single supercontinent known as Pangaea. All these cataclysms, says Wilson, drastically reduced the variety of species. But given world enough and time (at least 20 million years), biological diversity reasserted itself...