How It Works-Book Of Dinosaurs

Triassic desert

250 to 200 million years ago

Dinosaurs fi rst appeared during the Triassic period.

Earth was hot, dry and covered in deserts

DID YOU KNOW? The extinction event that killed the dinosaurs is one of five major events to have changed the Earth

Throughout the Mesozoic era, which comprised the Triassic,

Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, much was changing on and in

the Earth’s lands and seas.

The Triassic period was a time of recover y after the devastation, in

terms of the fauna and fl ora, that brought to a close the Permian period.

The high global temperatures and the empt y ecosystems on the land

meant that dinosaurs and mammals evolved during the Triassic period,

while the oceans saw sea urchins begin to diversif y, hav ing been driven

almost to the point of extinction at the end of the Permian period.

Global warming in the early Triassic period produced one of the hottest

periods in Earth’s histor y. The resulting deserts were home to a variet y of

dinosaurs, such as the Euparkeria. Fossil fi nds in what is now the Karoo

Desert of South Africa indicate that these carnivorous creatures were

blessed with speed and agility thanks to longer back legs that allowed

them to stand upright. An enlarged sinus cavity also suggests they had a

fi ne sense of smell, which would have been ideal for sniffi ng out prey in

its open desert surrounds.

Dinosaurs like Coelophysis

hunted in these areas

Coelophysis

Before the Triassic

period began, almost all

life had died out. Earth

was recovering from

the biggest extinction

event ever

Extinction

Dinosaurs only travelled deep into

the desert for food. Some areas

were too hot to live in all the time

Passing through