The Mesozoic era was the second era and lasted for about 180 million years,

from around 250 million to 60 million years ago. Many people call this the era of
reptiles and dinosaurs because of the fact that dinosaurs came into existence and
the reptiles were dominant during this era. Before this era, there was the Permian
Extinction after the Paleozoic era, which wiped out somewhere in between 90-99%
of all known organisms, most of which were aquatic. Many new organisms
developed. This era also had higher average temperatures compared to the
Paleozoic era; scientists believe that it was 10C (50F) higher in certain periods;
the majority of the climate during this time was either tropical and desert.
Continental shifting also happened in this era.
The era is split up into three periods: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.
Reptiles dominated the first period, Triassic, and there were small dinosaurs,
whereas dinosaurs dominated in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Mammals and
birds were small parts of the environment until the next era. One of the important
events that happened during the Jurassic period is Pangaea separating into two
supercontinents, Gondwana and Laurasia. After this, and also because of the
Permian Extinction, it took the first two periods in this era for the organisms to
balance out.
The environmental changes from period to period also highly impacted life in
this era. The Triassic period was dry, but the very extreme temperature changes;
the sea level was also low, which was the cause. In the Jurassic period, the sea
levels rose because of the sea floor spreading (which is what caused the continental
shifting). Because of this, there was a lot of flooding, deserts reduced, and it was
more humid and warmer, but the temperatures stabilized. The Cretaceous period,
saw the average temperature of the entire Earth go up by 10C (50F). Consequently,
there is the chance that the ocean near the equator was too hot, and so organisms
could not survive during it. This was all caused because of the water circulation in
the ocean not functioning properly.
Many events had occurred during the Mesozoic era; some of these events led to the
extinction. For one, Pangea broke during this era, which caused habitats of the
organisms to be destroyed; some organisms had to adapt to the new way the world
was organized. The end of this era was caused by an asteroid hitting and volcanic
activity, which led to a mass extinction that causing about 76% of all organisms to
go extinct.