The Age of Reptiles: The History and Legacy of the Mesozoic Era and the Dinosaurs

by Charles River Editors

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The current view of science is that planet Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. The first four billion years of its development are known as the Precambrian period. For the first billion years or so, there was no life in Earth. Then the first single-celled life-forms, early bacteria and algae, began to emerge. We don’t know where they came from or even if they originated on this planet at all. This gradual development continued until around four billion years ago when suddenly (in geological terms!) more complex forms of life began to emerge. Scientists call this time of an explosion of new forms of life the Paleozoic Era and it stretched from around 541 to 250 million years ago (Mya). First of all, in the oceans and then on land, new creatures and plants began to appear in bewildering variety. By the end of this period, life on Earth had exploded into a myriad of complex forms that filled virtually every habitat and niche available in the seas and on the planet’s only continent, Pangea. Then a mysterious event that became known to early paleontologists as “The Great Dying” wiped out more than 95% of all life on Earth. No-one is entirely certain what caused this, but the effect of this cataclysm was as if someone had pressed a great, cosmic “reset” button and it took thirty million years for the development of life on Earth to start again. The next period of Earth’s history is known as the Mesozoic Era, from about 252 to 66 Mya. This era is further divided into three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. During this era, one type of life came to dominate the planet more completely and for a longer period than had been seen before or since; this was the Age of Reptiles. Beginning in the Triassic but especially in the Jurassic period, reptiles came to dominate the oceans, the land and even the skies. There has never been anything else quite like this period in terms of the success of a particular type of creature. For almost two hundred million years, reptiles were the only significant creatures on Earth. They were so successful and so diverse that they evolved to take advantage of every available habitat and no other type of large creature had a chance to develop. To put the two hundred million years of reptile dominance in perspective, the entire span of recorded Human history, the time since people advanced from tribes of primitive, nomadic hunter-gatherers into recognizable societies, covers less than six thousand years. To put this in context, if the entire history of the planet were to be laid out on the length of a football field, the period of dominance of the age of reptiles would not begin until the five-yard line and would stretch for twelve feet. All of Human history would occupy a tiny strip at the end of the field, less than the width of a human hair. It was during the Jurassic period that reptiles began to rule the Earth and some of the best-known prehistoric creatures first emerged. This is the fascinating, complex and occasionally baffling story of the Jurassic period. The Age of The History and Legacy of the Mesozoic Era and the Dinosaurs looks at the development of the era, the extinction events that occurred, and how dinosaurs began to evolve and die out. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Mesozoic Era like never before.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

232 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2020

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done!

The Age of Reptiles by Charles River Editors has a lot of great info in this book. It's a bit longer than the others too. It has lots of maps, pictures, and other visual guides. I have just read several of these books, some had specific themes, but this is a good overall about the Mesozoic period and dinosaurs.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I've started to read more about the different ages of the Earth, I've found the research to be compelling and enthralling reading.  My favorite part of this book is the study of Earth's Extinction Events.  There have been multiple dying-off periods in our earth's history.

Sometimes, listening to an audiobook cannot offer as much information as the reading of that book.  This is the situation I found myself in with this particular audio version.  There are photos and drawings that are in the printed volume that is not shared in the auditory version.  With such an unfamiliar subject as this one (to me), the photos are truly 'worth a thousand words.'  So I went back and reread the book, so I could see the bones, animal drawings, and assembled skeletons the book shows.

Goodness, there was a Regisaurus, a rat-like creature that was carnivorous and 15.75 inches long (probably without the tail).  Fortunately, it was found in South Africa.  I still get heart palpitations looking at that toothy beast. Some of these drawings resemble terrible nightmares gone wrong, rather than long-gone animals.  I'll take Mickey and Minnie any day.

The maps showing the various stages of the massive landmass, Pangaea, and its gradual breakup over the ages, are wonderful.  Scientists believe that the landmass' breakup has something to do with the tectonic plates, but are uncertain why the currents altered directions or why new rifts were formed where and when they did.  Currently, the theory that holds sway is that a huge meteor caused the reaction on Earth.  That is because there is proof on Mars of such an incident that left a 3000-kilometer canyon (that dwarfs the Arizona Grand Canyon in size).

The best of both worlds is to read this with your eyes while the narrator (Gregory T. Luzitano, a gifted reader) smoothly tells the story.  He never hesitates on the Latin terms, even when they seem to run on for 20 or 30 syllables.  The author clearly states what is conjecture and what is a fact, along with how paleontologists have refined their judgments over the centuries.

FYI:  Listening to this story is about 3.5 hours.

[Tobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately wasn't as interesting as I had hoped. I think because the 'history' aspect of the time period is almost intangible, a lot of the book was almost repetitive and list like in developments of genera's etc throughout the time period.
Read 61% before finally giving up.