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Volcanoes may have given dinosaur evolution a helping hand
BBC Focus - Science & Technology
|November 2021
The rise of the dinosaurs seems to be connected to a period of violent volcanic activity more than 230 million years ago
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Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Diplodocus... it turns out that the hundreds of species of dinosaurs we know today may have arisen because of volcanoes, according to an international team of researchers.
During the late Triassic Period, there was a stretch of time known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE), which ran from 234 to 232 million years ago.
Before the CPE, the supercontinent of Pangaea was dry and arid, but then the CPE came along with its 'mega monsoon climate’, leading to an increase in global temperature and humidity. This transformation of conditions had a major impact on plant and animal life.
This story is from the November 2021 edition of BBC Focus - Science & Technology.
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