Editing Dinosaur (section)

===Evolution and paleobiogeography===
[[File:Pangaea 200Ma.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The supercontinent [[Pangaea]] in the early [[Mesozoic]] (around 200 million years ago).]]
Dinosaur evolution after the Triassic followed changes in vegetation and the location of continents. In the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, the continents were connected as the single landmass [[Pangaea]], and there was a worldwide dinosaur fauna mostly composed of [[coelophysoidea|coelophysoid]] carnivores and early sauropodomorph herbivores.<ref name=HCL04/> [[Gymnosperm]] plants (particularly [[Pinophyta|conifer]]s), a potential food source, [[Evolutionary radiation|radiated]] in the Late Triassic. Early sauropodomorphs did not have sophisticated mechanisms for processing food in the mouth, and so must have employed other means of breaking down food farther along the digestive tract.<ref name=FS04/> The general homogeneity of dinosaurian faunas continued into the Middle and Late Jurassic, where most localities had predators consisting of [[ceratosauria]]ns, [[Megalosauroidea|megalosauroids]], and [[Allosauroidea|allosauroids]], and herbivores consisting of stegosaurian ornithischians and large sauropods. Examples of this include the [[Morrison Formation]] of [[North America]] and [[Tendaguru Formation|Tendaguru Beds]] of Tanzania. Dinosaurs in China show some differences, with specialized [[Metriacanthosauridae|metriacanthosaurid]] theropods and unusual, long-necked sauropods like ''[[Mamenchisaurus]]''.<ref name=HCL04/> Ankylosaurians and ornithopods were also becoming more common, but primitive sauropodomorphs had become extinct. Conifers and [[pteridophyte]]s were the most common plants. Sauropods, like earlier sauropodomorphs, were not oral processors, but ornithischians were evolving various means of dealing with food in the mouth, including potential [[cheek]]-like organs to keep food in the mouth, and jaw motions to grind food.<ref name=FS04/> Another notable evolutionary event of the Jurassic was the appearance of true birds, descended from maniraptoran coelurosaurians.<ref name=KP04/>

By the [[Early Cretaceous]] and the ongoing breakup of Pangaea, dinosaurs were becoming strongly differentiated by landmass. The earliest part of this time saw the spread of ankylosaurians, [[iguanodontia]]ns, and [[brachiosauridae|brachiosaurids]] through Europe, North America, and northern [[Africa]]. These were later supplemented or replaced in Africa by large spinosaurid and [[carcharodontosauridae|carcharodontosaurid]] theropods, and [[rebbachisauridae|rebbachisaurid]] and [[titanosauria]]n sauropods, also found in [[South America]]. In [[Asia]], maniraptoran coelurosaurians like dromaeosaurids, [[troodontidae|troodontids]], and [[oviraptorosauria]]ns became the common theropods, and [[ankylosauridae|ankylosaurids]] and early ceratopsians like ''Psittacosaurus'' became important herbivores. Meanwhile, [[Australia]] was home to a fauna of basal ankylosaurians, [[hypsilophodont]]s, and iguanodontians.<ref name=HCL04/> The stegosaurians appear to have gone extinct at some point in the late Early Cretaceous or early [[Late Cretaceous]]. A major change in the Early Cretaceous, which would be amplified in the Late Cretaceous, was the evolution of [[flowering plant]]s. At the same time, several groups of dinosaurian herbivores evolved more sophisticated ways to orally process food. Ceratopsians developed a method of slicing with teeth stacked on each other in batteries, and iguanodontians refined a method of grinding with [[Dinosaur tooth#Dental batteries|dental batteries]], taken to its extreme in hadrosaurids.<ref name=FS04/> Some sauropods also evolved tooth batteries, best exemplified by the rebbachisaurid ''[[Nigersaurus]]''.<ref name=serenoetal07/>

There were three general dinosaur faunas in the Late Cretaceous. In the northern continents of North America and Asia, the major theropods were tyrannosaurids and various types of smaller maniraptoran theropods, with a predominantly ornithischian herbivore assemblage of hadrosaurids, ceratopsians, ankylosaurids, and pachycephalosaurians. In the southern continents that had made up the now-splitting supercontinent [[Gondwana]], [[abelisauridae|abelisaurids]] were the common theropods, and titanosaurian sauropods the common herbivores. Finally, in Europe, dromaeosaurids, [[rhabdodontidae|rhabdodontid]] iguanodontians, [[nodosauridae|nodosaurid]] ankylosaurians, and titanosaurian sauropods were prevalent.<ref name=HCL04/> Flowering plants were greatly radiating,<ref name=FS04/> with the first grasses appearing by the end of the Cretaceous.<ref name=PSAS05/> Grinding hadrosaurids and shearing ceratopsians became very diverse across North America and Asia. Theropods were also radiating as herbivores or [[omnivore]]s, with [[Therizinosauria|therizinosaur]]ians and [[ornithomimosauria]]ns becoming common.<ref name=FS04/>

The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately 66&nbsp;million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous, caused the extinction of all dinosaur groups except for the neornithine birds. Some other diapsid groups, including [[crocodilia]]ns, [[Dyrosauridae|dyrosaurs]], [[sebecosuchia]]ns, turtles, [[lizard]]s, [[snake]]s, [[Rhynchocephalia|sphenodontia]]ns, and [[choristodera]]ns, also survived the event.<ref name=AF04/>

The surviving lineages of neornithine birds, including the ancestors of modern [[ratite]]s, [[Fowl|ducks and chickens]], and a variety of [[Charadriiformes|waterbirds]], diversified rapidly at the beginning of the [[Paleogene]] period, entering [[ecological niche]]s left vacant by the extinction of Mesozoic dinosaur groups such as the arboreal [[enantiornithine]]s, aquatic [[hesperornithine]]s, and even the larger terrestrial theropods (in the form of ''[[Gastornis]]'', [[Eogruidae|eogruiids]], [[bathornithids]], ratites, [[Geranoididae|geranoidids]], [[mihirung]]s, and "[[terror bird]]s"). It is often stated that mammals out-competed the neornithines for dominance of most terrestrial niches but many of these groups co-existed with rich mammalian faunas for most of the [[Cenozoic]] Era.<ref name=lindow>{{harvnb|Dyke|Kaiser|2011|loc=chpt. 14: "Bird Evolution Across the K–Pg Boundary and the Basal Neornithine Diversification" by Bent E. K. Lindow. {{doi|10.1002/9781119990475.ch14}}}}</ref> Terror birds and bathornithids occupied carnivorous guilds alongside predatory mammals,<ref name="Cracraft">{{cite journal |last=Cracraft |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Cracraft |year=1968 |title=A Review of the Bathornithidae (Aves, Gruiformes), with Remarks on the Relationships of the Suborder Cariamae |url=https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/2536//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/nov/N2326.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=[[American Museum Novitates]] |location=New York |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |issue=2326 |pages=1–46 |issn=0003-0082 |hdl=2246/2536 |access-date=October 22, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alvarenga |first1=Herculano |author1-link=Herculano Marcos Ferraz de Alvarenga |last2=Jones |first2=Washington W. |last3=Rinderknecht |first3=Andrés |date=May 2010 |title=The youngest record of phorusrhacid birds (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) from the late Pleistocene of Uruguay |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233512584 |journal=[[Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie]] |location=[[Stuttgart]] |publisher=[[E. Schweizerbart]] |volume=256 |issue=2 |pages=229–234 |doi=10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0052 |bibcode=2010NJGPA.256..229A |issn=0077-7749 |access-date=October 22, 2019}}</ref> and ratites are still fairly successful as midsized herbivores; eogruiids similarly lasted from the [[Eocene]] to [[Pliocene]], becoming extinct only very recently after over 20&nbsp;million years of co-existence with many mammal groups.<ref>{{harvnb|Mayr|2009}}</ref>