Word: triassic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...planet is in the middle of an extinction crisis, the sixth great wave in its history. But unlike major extinction events of the past - like the Permian-Triassic event 250 million years ago, in which 70% of all terrestrial species were wiped out, probably because of an asteroid impact or a similar natural disaster - this time human beings are the cause. Hard numbers are difficult to find, but many scientists believe Earth's species are going extinct at a rate that is up to 1,000 times higher than before human beings came on the scene. (See how animals...
...Tianyu is not short on natural history. In one hall alone, 480 dinosaur fossils are randomly placed in glass cases or left in the open air around a room the size of a basketball court, along with Triassic fish and other more recent fossils, primarily from different parts of China. "We are the world's number one," says Zheng Xiaoting, director and keeper of the Tianyu (which means "universe" in Chinese) Natural History Museum's collection of thousands of dinosaur fossils. Though no official records of the collection's number exist, several Chinese paleontologists echo Zheng's claim that Tianyu...
...began selling their finds to the highest bidders - state institutions, private individuals and foreigners alike. Since then, numerous dinosaur and bird fossils have been identified in the northeast province of Liaoning, and the southwest regions of Guizhou and Yunnan have become well known for their massive output of Triassic marine-life fossils. Fakery became a natural part of this lucrative business, and several Chinese paleontologists say fakes, typically made into the shape of bones using plastic, charcoal and construction materials, now make up the majority of institutional fossil collections China. And though China's vast land mass means there...
...Ordovician ? First fsh Silurian ? First land plants Devonian ? Tiktaalik ? First tetrapods Carboniferous ? First reptiles ? First mammal-like reptiles Permian Triassic ? First dinosaurs ? First mammals Jurassic ? First birds Cretaceous ? First flowering plants Cenozoic ? First horses ? First monkeys...
...took 21st century technology to create what nature had by the Triassic period: a free-range dinosaur. Built by Walt Disney Imagineering, this friendly fellow goes by the name Lucky. He's 9 ft. tall, and unlike his animatronic ancestors (which date to the singing birds and flowers in Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room that opened in 1963), Lucky wanders on his own, untethered by any wires and cables. He can laugh, sneeze, smile, yell and sign autographs, and once in a while, he gets the hiccups. What's his secret? His brain resides not in that cute little head...