Editing Mesozoic (section)

==Life==
===Flora===
[[File:ProspectPemulwuypine.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Conifers were the dominant terrestrial plants for most of the Mesozoic, with [[grasses]] becoming widespread in the [[Late Cretaceous]]. [[Flowering plant]]s appeared late in the era but did not become widespread until the [[Cenozoic]].]]
The dominant land plant species of the time were [[gymnosperm]]s, which are vascular, cone-bearing, non-flowering plants such as conifers that produce seeds without a coating. This contrasts with the earth's current flora, in which the dominant land plants in terms of number of species are [[angiosperm]]s. The earliest members of the genus ''[[Ginkgo]]'' first appeared during the Middle Jurassic. This genus is represented today by a single species, ''[[Ginkgo biloba]]''.<ref name="Balducci">{{cite web | url=http://www.fossilnews.com/2000/mezplants/mezplants.html | title=Mesozoic Plants | publisher=fossilnews.com | date=2000 | access-date=28 July 2023 | last=Balducci | first=Stan | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130123140455/http://www.fossilnews.com/2000/mezplants/mezplants.html | archive-date=23 January 2013}}</ref> Modern conifer groups began to radiate during the Jurassic.<ref name="Leslie-2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Leslie |first1=Andrew B. |last2=Beaulieu |first2=Jeremy |last3=Holman |first3=Garth |last4=Campbell |first4=Christopher S. |last5=Mei |first5=Wenbin |last6=Raubeson |first6=Linda R. |last7=Mathews |first7=Sarah |date=September 2018 |title=An overview of extant conifer evolution from the perspective of the fossil record |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ajb2.1143 |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=105 |issue=9 |pages=1531–1544 |doi=10.1002/ajb2.1143 |pmid=30157290 |s2cid=52120430|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Bennettitales]], an extinct group of gymnosperms with foliage superficially resembling that of [[cycad]]s gained a global distribution during the Late Triassic, and represented one of the most common groups of Mesozoic seed plants.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Blomenkemper |first1=Patrick |last2=Bäumer |first2=Robert |last3=Backer |first3=Malte |last4=Abu Hamad |first4=Abdalla |last5=Wang |first5=Jun |last6=Kerp |first6=Hans |last7=Bomfleur |first7=Benjamin |date=26 March 2021 |title=Bennettitalean Leaves From the Permian of Equatorial Pangea—The Early Radiation of an Iconic Mesozoic Gymnosperm Group |journal=[[Frontiers in Earth Science]] |volume=9 |pages=652699 |doi=10.3389/feart.2021.652699 |bibcode=2021FrEaS...9..162B |issn=2296-6463 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[Flowering plant]]s radiated during the early Cretaceous, first in the [[tropics]], but the even temperature gradient allowed them to spread toward the poles throughout the period. By the end of the Cretaceous, angiosperms dominated tree floras in many areas, although some evidence suggests that [[Biomass (ecology)|biomass]] was still dominated by cycads and [[fern]]s until after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. Some plant species had distributions that were markedly different from succeeding periods; for example, the [[Schizeales]], a fern order, were skewed to the Northern Hemisphere in the Mesozoic, but are now better represented in the Southern Hemisphere.<ref>C.Michael Hogan. 2010. [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Fern ''Fern''. Encyclopedia of Earth. National council for Science and the Environment] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109071540/http://www.eoearth.org/article/Fern |date=9 November 2011 }}. Washington, DC</ref>

===Fauna===
[[File:Europasaurus holgeri Scene 2.jpg|thumb|[[Dinosaur]]s were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout much of the Mesozoic.]]
The extinction of nearly all animal species at the end of the [[Permian]] Period allowed for the [[adaptive radiation|radiation]] of many new lifeforms.  In particular, the extinction of the large [[herbivore|herbivorous]] [[pareiasaur]]s and [[carnivore|carnivorous]] [[gorgonopsia]]ns left those [[ecological niche]]s empty. Some were filled by the surviving [[cynodont]]s and [[dicynodont]]s, the latter of which subsequently became extinct.

Recent research indicates that it took much longer for the reestablishment of complex ecosystems with high biodiversity, complex food webs, and specialized animals in a variety of niches, beginning in the mid-Triassic 4 million to 6 million years after the extinction,<ref name="LehrmannRamezanBowring2006TimingOfRecovery">{{cite journal | title=Timing of recovery from the end-Permian extinction: Geochronologic and biostratigraphic constraints from south China | last1=Lehrmann |first1=D. J. |last2=Ramezan |first2=J. |last3=Bowring |first3=S.A. | display-authors=etal |
journal=[[Geology (journal)|Geology]] |date=December 2006 | volume=34 | pages=1053–56 | doi=10.1130/G22827A.1 | issue=12 |bibcode = 2006Geo....34.1053L }}</ref> and not fully proliferated until 30 million years after the extinction.<ref name="SahneyBenton2008RecoveryFromProfoundExtinction">{{cite journal |author1=Sahney, S. |author2=Benton, M. J. |name-list-style=amp | date=2008 | title=Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time | journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]] | doi=10.1098/rspb.2007.1370 | volume = 275 | pages = 759–65| pmid=18198148 | issue=1636 | pmc=2596898}}</ref> During the Triassic, terrestrial herbivores avoided competition through significant niche partitioning by generally occupying highly distinct guilds.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singh |first=Suresh A. |last2=Elsler |first2=Armin |last3=Stubbs |first3=Thomas L. |last4=Bond |first4=Russell |last5=Rayfield |first5=Emily J. |last6=Benton |first6=Michael James |date=14 May 2021 |title=Niche partitioning shaped herbivore macroevolution through the early Mesozoic |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23169-x |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=2796 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-23169-x |issn=2041-1723 |access-date=7 April 2025}}</ref> Animal life was then dominated by various archosaurs: [[dinosaur]]s, pterosaurs, and aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and [[mosasaur]]s.

The climatic changes of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous favored further adaptive radiation. The Jurassic was the height of archosaur diversity, and the first [[bird]]s and [[eutheria]]n mammals also appeared. Some have argued that [[insect]]s diversified in [[symbiosis]] with angiosperms, because insect [[anatomy]], especially the mouth parts, seems particularly well-suited for flowering plants. However, all major insect mouth parts preceded angiosperms, and insect diversification actually slowed when they arrived, so their anatomy originally must have been suited for some other purpose.{{Citation needed|reason=Molecular clock data for at least some genera are consistent with insect/angiosperm co-evolution. While also potentially plausible, this counter-claim should be supported with a citation.|date=October 2021}}
{{clear}}

===Microbiota===
At the dawn of the Mesozoic, ocean plankton communities transitioned from ones dominated by green [[Archaeplastida|archaeplastidans]] to ones dominated by endosymbiotic algae with red-algal-derived plastids. This transition is speculated to have been caused by an increasing paucity of many trace metals in the Mesozoic ocean.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Qiong |last2=Bendif |first2=El Mahdi |last3=Zhou |first3=Yu |last4=Nevado |first4=Bruno |last5=Shafiee |first5=Roxana |last6=Rickaby |first6=Rosalind E. M. |date=31 October 2022 |title=Declining metal availability in the Mesozoic seawater reflected in phytoplankton succession |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01053-7 |journal=[[Nature Geoscience]] |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=932–941 |doi=10.1038/s41561-022-01053-7 |access-date=21 July 2023|hdl=10451/55860 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>