Word: pangaea
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
When these terrestrial reptiles first appeared 200 million years ago near the end of what geologists call the Triassic Period, tropical or subtropical forests covered much of the landscape. The continents were gathered in a single primordial landmass called Pangaea. Initially, the dinosaurs were relatively small and vulnerable, about the size of ponies. Many of them undoubtedly fell victim to voracious, crocodile-like reptiles called phytosaurs. But by using almost every evolutionary stratagem, they proliferated in number and diversity. Some developed thick protective plating, comparable to that of modern-day armadillos. Ankylosaurus had armor on its skull, knobby stubs over...
...along the Transantarctic Mountains. There are strong indications of other treasures as well. More than 200 million years ago, before the world's continents began their slow drift apart, Antarctica was attached to South America, Africa, India and Australia as part of a great landmass that scientists call Pangaea (Greek for whole earth). In strata similar to those of its long-separated continental cousins, Antarctica, like the tip of South America and southeastern Australia, may possess uranium...