The Evolving World

You’re entering an Era called the Mesozoic. Three periods of time, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, make up the Mesozoic, which occurred between 252 million and 66 million years ago.

In the middle Triassic dinosaurs first evolved but became the dominant land animals during the Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Watch out for the Tyrannosaurus rex, Eoraptor, Smilosuchus and Camarasaurus as you’re moving through. They lived on a much different planet than the one we live on today. The Triassic and Jurassic saw major changes to the position of continents and seas that impacted climate and life. The Cretaceous saw one of the more stable periods in Earth history, permitting the gentle accumulation of trillions and trillions of marine organisms that led to vast thicknesses of chalk.


The climate at the time was also shifting, going from hot and dry to humid and subtropical. A lot of places that had been deserts suddenly became green, and the first birds and mammals began to evolve. Because of the dinosaurs, these first species were small and became very good at hiding to stay safe - but around a hundred million years after those first birds and animals appeared, there was another mass extinction that wiped out almost 75% of all species at the time - and it’s the reason we don’t see dinosaurs anymore. It wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and many marine species as well.