The Geologic Timescale

3 stages or the mesozoic era

triassic
jurassic
cretaceous

mosasaurs

A group of extinct lepidosaurs, related to modern snakes and lizards, that were highly adapted to a marine life; evolved in the Late Cretaceous.

Ammonite

A kind of extinct marine cephalopod with a spiral shell; thrived from the Devonian Era through the
Cretaceous Period but died out during the End-Cretaceous Extinction.

Ichthyosaurs

A group of marine reptiles that first evolved in the Triassic and went extinct towards the end of the Cretaceous. They look similar to dolphins, due to convergent evolution of body types. Name literally means: "fish lizard," even though they aren't fish or lizards!

Rhamphorhynchoids

Early group of flying reptiles, which were common in the Late Triassic and throughout the Jurassic. Typically had long tails compared to later flying reptiles

Pterodactyloids

Flying reptiles that differed to early relatives (Rhamphorhynchus) in morphology of their tails, which were short, and the carpels in their wrists, which were elongated and made a greater contribution to the length of the wing. Often had large head crests. (late triassic-cretaceous),

common dinosaurs during triassic?

theropods(like Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus), sauropods(Panphagia) w, ornithischians (Pisanosaurus),

plesiosaurs

another type of secondary aquatic reptile, much variation past the shoulders

common reptiles during triassic?

ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs (rhamphorhynchoid),

common dinos during the jurassic?

sauropods (main herbivores), stegosaurus, 1st ankylosaurus, non bird theropods (main carnivores)

archaeopteryx

first bird to form!

pterosaurs

**first vertebrate to fly, and share an ancestor with dinos (archosaurs), wings supported by one long ass finger. difference between pterosaurs and dinos is that pterosaurs don’t have the mandibular fenestra.**

main dinos during cretacieous

iguanodons, first ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurus, prosaurolophus(**hadrosaurs**), titanosaurs (main herbivore)