What Are The Dinosaur Periods?
Welcome to Intro to Dino 101, where we’ll be getting back to the dinosaur basics. Or, for many of us, getting to the basics for the first time.
The goal is to help make everyone comfortable with dinosaur info. While you don’t need to know anything at all about dinosaurs to enjoy a Dinosaur Trips experience, our trips and holidays are all about discovery and comfort, and that idea goes for this blog as well. So where should we even start?
How about we start with the basic timeline of the Age of the Dinosaurs.
When Was The Age of Dinosaurs?
Dinosaurs lived in a geologic era that would span nearly 200 million years: the Mesozoic Era. The Mesozoic is made up of three distinct periods, one of which you’ve definitely heard of thanks to Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg.
The three periods are the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.
First you’ve got the Triassic, which starts 252 million years ago and ends some 201 million years ago. Then comes the famous Jurassic period, which runs from 201 to 145 million years ago. And finally comes the Cretaceous, where you’ll find some of our most famous dinosaurs like the T. Rex and the triceratops, which begins 145 million years ago and came to its dramatic end some 65 million years ago when a massive asteroid struck the earth off what is now the coast of Mexico.
To recap the Mesozoic Era, aka the Age of the Dinosaurs:
Triassic
252-201 million years ago
Jurassic
201-145 million years ago
Cretaceous
145-65 million years ago
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