• White areas represent sequences of rocks

Cratonic Sequences of North America

• that are separated by large-scale uncon-formities

• shown in brown

• During the Triassic Period

Paleogeography of the World

Jurassic

• During the Late Cretaceous Period

Paleogeography of the World

• Evaporites accumulated in shallow basins – as Pangaea

broke apart during the Early Mesozoic

– Water from the Tethys Sea flowed into the Central Atlantic Ocean

Early Mesozoic Evaporites

• Marine water flowed into the southern Atlantic Ocean from the south

Thick Southern Ocean Evaporites

Late Cretaceousnote the seaway in central US

• The world's climates result from the complex interaction between – wind and ocean currents – and the location and topography of the continents

• In general, dry climates occur – on large landmasses – in areas remote from sources of moisture – and where barriers to moist air exist, – such as mountain ranges

• Wet climates occur – near large bodies of water – or where winds can carry moist air over land

Ocean Currents and Continents

• Widespread Triassic evaporites, red beds, and desert dunes: such as Zion National Park which began in the Jurassic– in the low and middle latitudes – of North and South America, Europe, and Africa – indicate dry climates in those regions,

• while coal deposits – are found mainly in the high latitudes, – indicating humid conditions

• These high-latitude coals are analogous to – today's Scottish peat bog – or Canadian muskeg

Evaporites, Red Beds, Dunes, Coal

Newark and Hartford Basins formWidespread igneous intrusions

Areas where Triassic fault-block basin deposits

crop out in eastern North America

• This sill was one of many that were intruded into the Newark sediments

– during the Late Triassic rifting

– that marked the separation – of North America from Africa

Palisades Sill of the Hudson River

Reptile Tracks

• Reptile tracks in the Triassic Newark Group– were uncovered during the excavation – for a new state building in Hartford,

Connecticut• Because the tracks were so spectacular,– the building side was moved – and the excavation was designated as a state

park

Mesozoic Cephalapods

White Cliffs of Dover, UK

Lived and died in clear warm seas that covered much of Britain around 70 to 100 million years ago. When they died, they fell to the bottom in a rain

of fine white mud. As chalk formed from the mud, layers and lumps of hard, glassy flint also developed - prized by stone-age man for tools.

• Latimeria – belongs to a group of fish once thought to have

gone extinct at the end of the Mesozoic Era – A specimen was caught off the coast of East Africa

in 1938– Since then

many more have been captured

Living Fossil

Reptiles and Birds

All dinosaurs possess a number of shared characteristics,

such as full and upright posture with limbs directly beneath their bodies

yet differ enough for us to recognize two distinct orders,

the Saurischia and Ornithischia

A distinctive pelvic structure characterizes each order

• Cladogram showing dinosaur relationships– showing pelvises of ornithischians and saurischians – Among the several subgroups of dinosaurs

Dinosaur Cladogram

• theropods were carnivores

• and all others were herbivores

• Missoula, MTMuseum of the RockiesJack Horner, curator

Dinosaur Provincial ParkAlberta, Canada

m

1966 Tracks discovered during

construction project in Rocky Hill, CT

2066 Tracks discovered near

Rocky Hill, CT

Top events of the Cenozoic• 65 mya

Cretaceous Sea dries upSubtropical climate in USPlate tectonics moves to the Western USFarallon Plate subducts under N.A.

Today remnants are allegedly found under the eastern US

uplift of the western statesflow of the Colorado River

formation of Grand Canyon begins

• Formation of Panama – central Americaanimals unique to N and S America now migrate and

competeonly one marsupial in NA

• Camels, horses, sloths Australopithecines evolve before 1.8 mya

Large mammals such as mammoths, mastodons, saber tooth cats, dwell in cooling NASpecies of homo habilis and ancestors of homo sapiens evolve.NeanderthalHumans ice age over 1 my

Nov. 2011Asteroid YU55 passes Earth inside of moon’s orbit

860,000 miles from Earth

• A preliminary orbit calculation shows that 2012 DA14 has a very Earth-like orbit with a period of 366.24 days, just one more day than our terrestrial year, and it ‘jumps’ inside and outside of the path of Earth two times per year. While an impact with Earth has been ruled out on the asteroid’s next visit, astronomers will use that close approach for more studies and calculate the Earth and Moon’s gravitational effects on it. (Credit: Deimos-Space)

Yellow: asteroid around sunGreen: Earth orbit around sun

Orbit of DA16 = 366.24 Earth daysOrbit of Earth = 365.25

It’s back….Feb. 15th, 2013cannot pass closer than 3.2 Earth radii – about

17,000 miles