How volcanoes helped dinosaurs take over the Earth

About 200 million years ago on Earth, 95% of all living things in water and more than 75% on land suddenly died out. Among the remaining five percent were relatively small reptiles that quickly took advantage of the situation and seized power on the planet for almost 150 million years. So on Earth, dinosaurs began to dominate. But what happened to the rest?

Hot season

Of course, dinosaurs did not plan anything like that. Everything happened by itself. Just at some point at the end of the Triassic period, due to volcanic eruptions, part of the earth's crust turned into lava, the environment changed, all competitors died. And protodinosaurs were able to make a great evolutionary leap.

In the photo: fauna of the Triassic period

A recently published study says that scientists studied six sites at different ends of the planet. At each site, geologists measured the level of mercury in the sediments between thick layers of volcanic rock. It turned out that mercury levels were increased in five out of six zones, which proves the long-standing theory that the mass extinction of many species about 200 million years ago was caused precisely by volcanic eruptions.

Geologists were able to find out that at that time volcanoes intensified in the territory of modern Morocco, Greenland, Argentina, Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Because of this, a vast territory appeared, flooded with lava. The eruptions most likely occurred in pulses here and there. Such a “buildup” could affect the breakup of the Pangea supercontinent into the continents known to us today.

Mercury springboard

Burning lava from many volcanoes alone would hardly have caused such a massive extinction of life. It was rather a matter of serious environmental and climatic changes that caused serious damage to marine invertebrates, crocodile-like reptiles and corals.

Due to strong eruptions, many substances were released into the atmosphere, including gaseous mercury mixed with carbon dioxide. This is also observed with modern volcanic eruptions or forest fires. Such an amount of gas in the atmosphere affected the climate and became fatal for most living things on planet Earth.

In the photo: Jurassic dinosaurs / Source: National Geographic

The fauna could not recover for hundreds of thousands of years until the climate improved. But those who could be saved later turned into Terrible Lizards - dinosaurs - and dominated the Earth during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Until a new disaster, a giant meteorite, destroyed them, clearing the evolutionary path for mammals.