Post by cjm on Oct 9, 2022 8:22:14 GMT
'Sea monsters' were real millions of years ago. New fossils tell about their rise and fall
This does not explain much at all
This does not explain much at all
Both mosasaurs and tyrannosaurs start to diversify and become larger at the same time, around 90 million years ago, in the Turonian stage of the Cretaceous. This followed major extinctions on land and in the sea around 94 million years ago, at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary.
These extinctions are associated with extreme global warming – a “supergreenhouse” climate – driven by volcanoes releasing C02 into the atmosphere. In the aftermath, giant predatory plesiosaurs disappeared from the seas and giant allosaurid predators were wiped out on land. With predator niches left vacant, mosasaurs and tyrannosaurs moved into the top predator niche. Although they were wiped out by a mass extinction, Thalassotitan and T. rex only evolved in the first place because of a mass extinction.
These extinctions are associated with extreme global warming – a “supergreenhouse” climate – driven by volcanoes releasing C02 into the atmosphere. In the aftermath, giant predatory plesiosaurs disappeared from the seas and giant allosaurid predators were wiped out on land. With predator niches left vacant, mosasaurs and tyrannosaurs moved into the top predator niche. Although they were wiped out by a mass extinction, Thalassotitan and T. rex only evolved in the first place because of a mass extinction.