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How to Live with Dinosaurs: Ecosystems Across the Mesozoic

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Nature through Time

Abstract

We continue our trip back in time through the Mesozoic, visiting several different ecosystems across the planet. Each of these was strongly influenced by the continental breakup from a single landmass into several tectonic plates and associated landmasses during this period. We will visit localities on several continents, observe how their vertebrate faunas changed over time, and what external factors might have contributed to these differences.

During the Cretaceous, we visit the Iberian Peninsula, where hadrosauroids replaced titanosaurs as the most abundant dinosaur taxon. On the other side of the planet, a succession of geologic formations in Australia shows a gradual change from aquatic to terrestrial faunas resulting from sea-level changes of a now non-existent inland ocean. A visit to two polar ecosystems indicates possible mutual exclusion between amphibians (temnospondyls) and reptiles (crocodylomorphs), because they occupied similar ecological niches. Observing the record of Cretaceous landscapes in what is now Mongolia shows how changes in environment and climate correlate with changes in faunal composition.

Heading back, we check if there are distinct differences in vertebrate diversity in space and time in the Late Jurassic of North America. Then we move south, to Argentina, and back to the Middle and Early Jurassic. Here, we will try to understand where these Late Jurassic faunas originated and what influence the fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangea had on their evolution and diversity. Finally, we will stop our trip in the Late Triassic of Central Europe, examining a typical vertebrate fauna from the time when dinosaurs began their domination of the planet.

Electronic supplementary material

A slide presentation and an explanation of each slide’s content is freely available to everyone upon request via email to one of the editors: edoardo.martinetto@unito.it, ragastal@colby.edu, tschopp.e@gmail.com*The asterisk designates terms explained in the Glossary.

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Acknowledgments

We thank RA Gastaldo and E Martinetto for their extremely thoughtful reviews of an early draft of this chapter. DE Barta thanks the staff of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mark Norell and Mike Novacek (AMNH), Dave Varricchio (MSU), Konstantin Mikhailov (PIN), and Adam Halamski (ZPAL) for discussion and the opportunities they have provided to study Mongolian fossils in the field and collections. The following persons and institutions were involved with the excavations in Frick, Switzerland: Jasmina Hugi, René Kindlimann, Ben Pabst, Esther Premru, Monica Rümbeli, Beat Scheffold, Iwan Stössel, Lui Unterrassner, Martin Sander, Nicole Klein, the Arbeitskreis Frick and the community of Frick, Hochschule Aalen, Canton Aargau, the MNF of the University of Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute Villigen, the Saurierkommission Frick, the University of Bonn, and the Universitätsspital Zürich. The Swiss National Science Foundation (grant nos. 205321_162775 to TMS and 31003A_163346 to WB), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [grant numbers CGL2011-30069-C02-01,02, CGL2016-73230-P], the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya [grant number 20014/100927], the Richard Gilder Graduate School and the Division of Paleontology (AMNH, to ET and DEB) are acknowledged for funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA

    Emanuel Tschopp

  2. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation Tahlequah, Oklahoma, NY, USA

    Daniel E. Barta

  3. Universität Zürich, Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Zürich, Switzerland

    Winand Brinkmann, Torsten M. Scheyer & Marion Zahner

  4. Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, Vernal, UT, USA

    John R. Foster

  5. Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany

    Femke M. Holwerda

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK

    Susannah C. R. Maidment

  7. Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia

    Stephen F. Poropat

  8. Departament de Recerca de Faunes del Mesozoic, Institut Català de Paleontologia, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert G. Sellés & Bernat Vila

  9. Museu de la Conca Dellà, Lleida, Spain

    Albert G. Sellés & Bernat Vila

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Correspondence to Emanuel Tschopp .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Edoardo Martinetto

  2. Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA

    Emanuel Tschopp

  3. Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA

    Robert A. Gastaldo

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Tschopp, E. et al. (2020). How to Live with Dinosaurs: Ecosystems Across the Mesozoic. In: Martinetto, E., Tschopp, E., Gastaldo, R.A. (eds) Nature through Time. Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35058-1_8

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