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73-622: It is estimated that approximately 2.3% of Zambians are native Kaonde speakers. Kaonde speakers overwhelmingly live in the Northwestern and parts of Central regions of Zambia. Fewer numbers of Kaonde speakers live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, they are not known or identified by the term Kaonde but rather by the term Luba. In Zambia, Kaonde people occupying the following districts: Solwezi,Mufumbwe,Kasempa,Kalumbila and Mushindamo in

146-455: A carbon sink . However, deforestation and degradation of the ecology by the impacts of climate change may increase stress on the forest ecosystem, in turn making the hydrology of the basin more variable. A 2012 study found that the variability in precipitation caused by climate change will negatively affect economic activity in the basin. Eight sites of the Congo Basin are inscribed on

219-476: A boom of dinosaurian evolution on land as the continents began to separate from each other (Nyasasaurus from 243 to 210 million years ago, approximately 235–30 ma, some of them separated into Sauropodomorphs, Theropods and Herrerasaurids), as well as the first pterosaurs . During the Late Triassic, some advanced cynodonts gave rise to the first Mammaliaformes . All this climatic change, however, resulted in

292-582: A coating. This contrasts with the earth's current flora, in which the dominant land plants in terms of number of species are angiosperms . The earliest members of the genus Ginkgo first appeared during the Middle Jurassic. This genus is represented today by a single species, Ginkgo biloba . Modern conifer groups began to radiate during the Jurassic. Bennettitales , an extinct group of gymnosperms with foliage superficially resembling that of cycads gained

365-598: A declaration applying to all humans, God revealed more about his evaluation of life and blood Congo Basin The Congo Basin ( French : Bassin du Congo ) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River . The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa , in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo . It contains some of the largest tropical rainforests in

438-584: A decline in diversity of sauropods, stegosaurs, and other high-browsing groups, with sauropods particularly scarce in North America. Some island-hopping dinosaurs, such as Eustreptospondylus , evolved to cope with the coastal shallows and small islands of ancient Europe. Other dinosaurs rose up to fill the empty space that the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction left behind, such as Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus . Seasons came back into effect and

511-477: A few million years before the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Sea levels began to rise during the Jurassic, probably caused by an increase in seafloor spreading . The formation of new crust beneath the surface displaced ocean waters by as much as 200 m (656 ft) above today's sea level, flooding coastal areas. Furthermore, Pangaea began to rift into smaller divisions, creating new shoreline around

584-477: A global distribution during the Late Triassic, and represented one of the most common groups of Mesozoic seed plants. Flowering plants 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

657-447: A global level, Congo's forests act as the planet's second lung, counterpart to the rapidly dwindling Amazon. They are a huge " carbon sink ", trapping carbon that could otherwise remain carbon dioxide. The Congo Basin holds roughly 8% of the world's forest-based carbon. If these woodlands are deforested, the carbon they trap will be released into the atmosphere. Predictions for future unabated deforestation estimate that by 2050 activities in

730-659: A large die-out known as the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, in which many archosaurs (excluding pterosaurs, dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs ), most synapsids , and almost all large amphibians became extinct, as well as 34% of marine life, in the Earth's fourth mass extinction event. The cause is debatable; flood basalt eruptions at the Central Atlantic magmatic province is cited as one possible cause. The Jurassic ranges from 200 million years to 145 million years ago and features three major epochs: The Early Jurassic,

803-468: A mean size exceeding 500 km2 in some parts of the Congo Basin. Temperatures in the Congo Basin (usually between 20 and 30 °C) are lower than in the African desert regions to the north ( The Sahara ) and to the south ( Kalahari ). The differences in temperature between the deserts and the Congo Basin is important for driving wind systems known as African easterly jets , which affect climate and weather in

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876-415: A new forestry code that requires companies to invest in local development and follow a sustainable, 25-year cycle of rotational logging. When a company is granted a concession from the central government to log in Congo, it must sign an agreement with the local chiefs and hereditary land owners, who give permission for it to extract the trees in return for development packages. In theory, the companies must pay

949-518: A stream called Kaonde in river Congo Basin . From there, the people migrated into what is now Northwestern Zambia. This group of people called their language kiiKaonde. Speakers of other Bantu languages use the prefix "chi" other than "kii" to refer to this language. Just like any other tribe in Zambia, Kaondes are ruled by the traditional leaders. The following are the chiefs of the Kaonde people recognised by

1022-435: A variety of niches, beginning in the mid-Triassic 4 million to 6 million years after the extinction, and not fully proliferated until 30 million years after the extinction. Animal life was then dominated by various archosaurs: dinosaurs , pterosaurs, and aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs . The climatic changes of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous favored further adaptive radiation. The Jurassic

1095-590: Is a prefix attached to verbs and adjectives related to the noun. Tense markers may modify the concord. Kaonde has personal, demonstrative and relative pronouns. The first and second person pronouns are independent of the noun class system. Third person pronouns are formed using the demonstrative pronouns for the ba noun class. Demonstrative are arranged by noun class and by deixis . Sample text in Kaonde Mu byambo byanji byalamata bantu bonse, Lesa waambile ne byambo bikwabo pa byo anemeka bumi ne mashi . Translation In

1168-612: Is home to the okapi , African forest elephant , pygmy hippopotamus , bongo (antelope) , chimpanzee , bonobo and the Congo peafowl . Its apex predator is the Leopard , which are larger than their savannah counterparts due to lack of competition from other large predators. The basin is home to the endangered western lowland gorilla . In 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme warned that gorillas could be extinct from

1241-414: Is relatively low to the north of the equator (<80 mm per month). In southern hemisphere winter, rainfall is instead lower to the south of the equator (<80 mm per month). The annual rhythm of the wind systems which carry water vapour account for the rainfall seasonality. Much of the rainfall is derived from large Mesoscale convective systems . The systems last over 11 hours on average and have

1314-522: Is thought that a large meteor smashed into earth 66 million years ago, creating the Chicxulub Crater in an event known as the K-Pg Extinction (formerly K-T), the fifth and most recent mass extinction event, in which 75% of life became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Compared to the vigorous convergent plate mountain-building of the late Paleozoic, Mesozoic tectonic deformation

1387-581: Is uncertain, it is likely that extreme rainfall events will become more extreme owing to the increases in water vapour in the atmosphere. Owing to the global climatic importance of the Congo Basin, it has been suggested that, along with the Amazon, severe changes in the rainfall or climate of the Congo Rainforest could act as a ' tipping point ', with widespread impacts on the Earth System. The Congo forest

1460-664: The Cenozoic . The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event , the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event , another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs , pterosaurs , mosasaurs , and plesiosaurs . The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climatic, and evolutionary activity. The supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart into separate landmasses. The climate of

1533-620: The Chambeshi , the Uele and Ubangi rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands in the middle reaches. Because of the young age and active uplift of the East African Rift at the headwaters , the river's yearly sediment load is very large, but the drainage basin occupies large areas of low relief throughout much of its area. It is delineated largely by swells including

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1606-605: The DRC will release roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the United Kingdom has emitted over the last 60 years. A 2013 study by British scientists showed that deforestation in the Congo Basin rainforest was slowing down. In 2017, British scientists discovered that peatlands in the Cuvette Centrale , which cover a total of 145,500 sq km, contain 30 billion tonnes of carbon, or 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions. In 2021,

1679-679: The Greek prefix meso- ( μεσο- 'between') and zōon ( ζῷον 'animal, living being'). In this way, the Mesozoic is comparable to the Cenozoic ( lit.   ' new life ' ) and Paleozoic ('old life') eras as well as the Proterozoic ('earlier life') Eon. The Mesozoic Era was originally described as the "secondary" era, following the "primary" ( Paleozoic ), and preceding the Tertiary . Following

1752-698: The Indian subcontinent , which collided with the Asian plate during the Cenozoic, giving rise to the Himalayas . The Triassic was generally dry, a trend that began in the late Carboniferous , and highly seasonal, especially in the interior of Pangaea. Low sea levels may have also exacerbated temperature extremes. With its high specific heat capacity , water acts as a temperature-stabilizing heat reservoir, and land areas near large bodies of water—especially oceans—experience less variation in temperature. Because much of Pangaea's land

1825-554: The Permian Period allowed for the radiation of many new lifeforms. In particular, the extinction of the large herbivorous pareiasaurs and carnivorous gorgonopsians left those ecological niches empty. Some were filled by the surviving cynodonts and dicynodonts , 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

1898-528: The Sahel and Southern Africa . Future climate projections indicate that the region will get hotter in response to global climate change. There is more uncertainty over how average rainfall in the region will change, with the climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) disagreeing on core elements of the rainfall distribution in the region. While the average rainfall change

1971-506: The Triassic , Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods . It is characterized by the dominance of gymnosperms such as cycads , ginkgoaceae and araucarian conifers, and of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs ; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea . The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since complex life evolved : the Paleozoic , the Mesozoic, and

2044-732: The World Heritage List , five being also on the list of World Heritage in Danger (all five located in Democratic Republic of the Congo ). Fourteen percent of the humid forest is designated as protected. The Congo Basin is a large depression within the Congo Craton , making it a patch of relatively recent ( Phanerozoic -aged, and mostly Mesozoic & onwards) sedimentary rock within a large, otherwise extremely ancient ( Archean -aged) piece of exposed continental crust. The deformation of

2117-453: The Atlantic seaway, which has grown continually larger until today. The further separation of the continents gave opportunity for the diversification of new dinosaurs. The Cretaceous is the longest period of the Mesozoic, but has only two epochs: Early and Late Cretaceous. The Early Cretaceous spans from 145 to 100 million years ago. The Early Cretaceous saw the expansion of seaways and

2190-572: The Bie, Mayumbe, Adamlia, Nil-Congo , East African, and Zambian Swells. The basin ends where the river empties into the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The basin is a total of 3.7 million square kilometers and is home to some of the largest undisturbed stands of tropical rainforest on the planet, in addition to large wetlands. Countries wholly or partially in the Congo region: The first inhabitants of

2263-461: The Congo Basin area were believed to be pygmies , and at that time, the dense forests and wet climate kept the population of the region low, with the prevention of hunter-gatherer society, whose remnants of their culture survive to the present day. Eventually Bantu peoples migrated there and founded the Kingdom of Kongo . Belgium , France , and Portugal later established colonial control over

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2336-539: The Congo Basin. The Congo Basin is a globally important climatic region with annual rainfall of between 1500 and 2000 mm. It is one of three hotspots of deep convection ( thunderstorms ) in the tropics, the other two being over the Maritime continent and the Amazon . These three regions together drive the climate circulation of the tropics and beyond. The Congo Basin has the highest lightning strike frequency of anywhere on

2409-535: The Craton began as early as the late Cambrian or early Ordovician and continued over the Paleozoic , but the deformation over this period led to rapid erosion of much of this Paleozoic rock, creating a large unconformity . Sediment started to rapidly accumulate in the basin from the Mesozoic ( Triassic ) up to the present day. Deposits throughout the Jurassic suggest the presence of a freshwater, lacustrine habitat in

2482-523: The Cretaceous, possibly due to a shock from a sudden decrease in the rate of seafloor spreading of the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge , are the source of the region's famous diamonds . By the Cenozoic , an uplift in the borders of the Cuvette Centrale had blocked any further marine connections. During the Paleogene , high rainfall turned the basin into a series of marshy ponds and swamps. A shift to more arid conditions with seasonal droughts occurred with

2555-771: The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Approximately 50% of all genera became extinct, including all of the non- avian dinosaurs. The Triassic ranges roughly from 252 million to 201 million years ago, preceding the Jurassic Period. The period is bracketed between the Permian–Triassic extinction event and the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event , two of the " big five ", and it is divided into three major epochs: Early, Middle, and Late Triassic. The Early Triassic, about 252 to 247 million years ago,

2628-537: The Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs, then true toothless birds appeared in the Cretaceous. The first mammals also appeared during the Mesozoic, but would remain small—less than 15 kg (33 lb)—until the Cenozoic. Flowering plants appeared in the Early Cretaceous and would rapidly diversify through the end of the era, replacing conifers and other gymnosperms ( sensu lato ), such as ginkgoales , cycads and bennettitales as

2701-458: The Late Cretaceous declined for poorly understood reasons, though this might be due to tendencies of the fossil record, as their diversity seems to be much higher than previously thought. Birds became increasingly common and diversified into a variety of enantiornithe and ornithurine forms. Though mostly small, marine hesperornithes became relatively large and flightless, adapted to life in

2774-463: The Mesozoic was varied, alternating between warming and cooling periods. Overall, however, the Earth was hotter than it is today. Dinosaurs first appeared in the Mid-Triassic, and became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates in the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic, occupying this position for about 150 or 135 million years until their demise at the end of the Cretaceous. Archaic birds appeared in

2847-549: The Middle Jurassic, and the Late Jurassic. The Early Jurassic spans from 200 to 175 million years ago. The climate was tropical and much more humid than the Triassic, as a result of the large seas appearing between the land masses. In the oceans, plesiosaurs , ichthyosaurs and ammonites were abundant. On land, dinosaurs and other archosaurs staked their claim as the dominant race, with theropods such as Dilophosaurus at

2920-640: The North-Western province, and Mumbwa in the Central province. Kaonde villages can also be found in the northern parts of Kaoma District in the Western Province. Strictly speaking, the term "Kaonde" refers to a group of people who are identified by a common language known as kiiKaonde. This group of people, like many others in Zambia, was originally part of the Luba Kingdom. They migrated south to area surrounding

2993-617: The Paleozoic, the Mesozoic extended roughly 186 million years, from 251.902 to 66 million years ago when the Cenozoic Era began. This time frame is separated into three geologic periods . From oldest to youngest: The lower boundary of the Mesozoic is set by the Permian–Triassic extinction event , during which it has been estimated that up to 90-96% of marine species became extinct although those approximations have been brought into question with some paleontologists estimating

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3066-468: The Tethys Ocean. Temperatures continued to increase, then began to stabilize. Humidity also increased with the proximity of water, and deserts retreated. The climate of the Cretaceous is less certain and more widely disputed. Probably, higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are thought to have almost eliminated the north–south temperature gradient : temperatures were about the same across

3139-532: The actual numbers as low as 81%. It is also known as the "Great Dying" because it is considered the largest mass extinction in the Earth's history. The upper boundary of the Mesozoic is set at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (or K–Pg extinction event ), which may have been caused by an asteroid impactor that created Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula . Towards the Late Cretaceous, large volcanic eruptions are also believed to have contributed to

3212-799: The basin, and this continued into the Early Cretaceous . By the start of the Late Cretaceous , a connection with the Trans-Saharan seaway led to a significant marine incursion into the basin (evidence of an earlier, Late Jurassic marine intrusion is disputed), causing it to serve as a connection between the southern Atlantic Ocean and the Tethys Ocean . Many of the formations deposited by these freshwater and marine habitats are rich in pollen, invertebrate, and vertebrate (primarily fish) fossils . Kimberlite pipes that are thought to have formed during

3285-456: The beginnings of the breakup of Pangaea and the opening of the Tethys Ocean . Ecosystems had recovered from the Permian extinction. Algae, sponge, corals, and crustaceans all had recovered, and new aquatic reptiles evolved, such as ichthyosaurs and nothosaurs . On land, pine forests flourished, as did groups of insects such as mosquitoes and fruit flies. Reptiles began to get bigger and bigger, and

3358-579: The case, there could be a financial incentive for protecting forests. L’Île Mbiye, an island in the Lualaba River in Kisangani , is part of a project about forest ecosystem conservation, conducted by Stellenbosch University . Democratic Republic of the Congo is also looking to expand the area of forest under protection, for which it hopes to secure compensation through emerging markets for forest carbon. The main Congolese environmental organization working to save

3431-431: The current level (about 21%) throughout the Mesozoic, some concluding they were lower in the Triassic and part of the Jurassic but higher in the Cretaceous, and some concluding they were higher throughout most or all of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. The dominant land plant species of the time were gymnosperms , which are vascular, cone-bearing, non-flowering plants such as conifers that produce seeds without

3504-468: The deforestation rate of the Congolese rainforest increased by 5%. The Global Forest Atlas estimated that the logging industry covers from 44 to 66 million hectares of forest. A study published in 2019 in Nature Sustainability showed that 54,000 miles of roads for forest concessions were built between 2003 and 2018, reaching a total of 143,500 miles. A moratorium on logging in the Congo forest

3577-452: The dominant group of plants. The phrase "Age of Reptiles" was introduced by the 19th century paleontologist Gideon Mantell who viewed it as dominated by diapsids such as Iguanodon , Megalosaurus , Plesiosaurus , and Pterodactylus . The current name was proposed in 1840 by the British geologist John Phillips (1800–1874). "Mesozoic" literally means 'middle life', deriving from

3650-600: The dramatic rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea, which gradually split into a northern continent, Laurasia , and a southern continent, Gondwana . This created the passive continental margin that characterizes most of the Atlantic coastline (such as along the U.S. East Coast ) today. By the end of the era, the continents had rifted into nearly their present forms, though not their present positions. Laurasia became North America and Eurasia , while Gondwana split into South America , Africa , Australia , Antarctica and

3723-567: The entire region by the late 19th century. The General Act of the Berlin Conference of 1885 gave a precise definition to the "conventional basin" of the Congo, which included the entire actual basin plus some other areas. The General Act bound its signatories to neutrality within the conventional basin, but this was not respected during the First World War . The World Resources Institute estimated that 80 million people live in and around

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3796-467: The fern prairies, chased by many new predators such as Allosaurus . Conifer forests made up a large portion of the forests. In the oceans, plesiosaurs were quite common, and ichthyosaurs flourished. This epoch was the peak of the reptiles. The Late Jurassic spans from 163 to 145 million years ago. During this epoch, the first avialans , such as Archaeopteryx , evolved from small coelurosaurian dinosaurs. The increase in sea levels opened up

3869-460: The first crocodilians and dinosaurs evolved, which sparked competition with the large amphibians that had previously ruled the freshwater world, respectively mammal-like reptiles on land. Following the bloom of the Middle Triassic, the Late Triassic, from 237 to 201 million years ago, featured frequent heat spells and moderate precipitation (10–20 inches per year). The recent warming led to

3942-478: The food web. In the oceans, mosasaurs ruled, filling the role of the ichthyosaurs, which, after declining, had disappeared in the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event . Though pliosaurs had gone extinct in the same event, long-necked plesiosaurs such as Elasmosaurus continued to thrive. Flowering plants, possibly appearing as far back as the Triassic, became truly dominant for the first time. Pterosaurs in

4015-425: The forests is an NGO called OCEAN, which serves as the link between international outfits like Greenpeace and local community groups in the concessions. 0°00′00″N 22°00′00″E  /  0.0000°N 22.0000°E  / 0.0000; 22.0000 Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the era of Earth's geological history , lasting from about 252 to 66 million years ago , comprising

4088-432: The fossil record. The Late Cretaceous spans from 100 to 66 million years ago. The Late Cretaceous featured a cooling trend that would continue in the Cenozoic Era. Eventually, tropics were restricted to the equator and areas beyond the tropic lines experienced extreme seasonal changes in weather. Dinosaurs still thrived, as new taxa such as Tyrannosaurus , Ankylosaurus , Triceratops and hadrosaurs dominated

4161-544: The government nearly $ 18 million rent per year for these concessions, of which 40% should be returned to provincial governments for investment in social development of the local population in the logged areas. In its current form, the Kyoto Protocol does not reward so-called "avoided deforestation"—initiatives that protect forest from being cut down. But many climate scientists and policymakers hope that negotiations for Kyoto's successor will include such measures. If this were

4234-556: The government of Zambia: Senior Chief Kapiji Kasongo Kamuyange Mujimanzovu, Senior Chief Kasempa, Chief Kapiji Mpanga, Chief Mumena, Chief Matebo, Chief Ingwe, Chief Mukumbi Kizela, Chief Mushima Mubambe, Chief Mulendema, Chief Mumba, Chief Kaindu, Chief Mukumbi Katotola and Senior Chief Mukumbi Ibaloli ( Originally, Mukumbi Ibaloli is a Lunda) Like other Bantu languages, Kaonde nouns are grouped into several semantic classes, ranging from those that denote human beings to those that denote things. The concord or agreement markers for each class

4307-461: The greater Congo Basin in a matter of 15 years. The Congo Basin is the largest forest in Africa. More than 10,000 plant species can be found in and around the forest. The humid forests cover 1.6 million km². The Congo Basin is an important source of African teak , used for building furniture and flooring. An estimated 40 million people depend on these woodlands, surviving on traditional livelihoods. At

4380-455: The open sea. Metatherians and primitive eutherian also became common and even produced large and specialised genera such as Didelphodon and Schowalteria . Still, the dominant mammals were multituberculates, cimolodonts in the north and gondwanatheres in the south. At the end of the Cretaceous, the Deccan traps and other volcanic eruptions were poisoning the atmosphere. As this continued, it

4453-437: The planet, and about 10° C higher than today. The circulation of oxygen to the deep ocean may also have been disrupted, preventing the decomposition of large volumes of organic matter, which was eventually deposited as " black shale ". Different studies have come to different conclusions about the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere during different parts of the Mesozoic, with some concluding oxygen levels were lower than

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4526-539: The planet. The high rainfall supports the second largest rainforest on Earth, which is a globally significant carbon sink and an important component of the global carbon cycle . Averaged across the whole basin, there are two major rainfall seasons in March to May and September to November. In both hemispheres the rainfall maximises in September to November, at above 210 mm per month. In northern hemisphere winter, rainfall

4599-641: The poles got seasonally colder, but some dinosaurs still inhabited the polar forests year round, such as Leaellynasaura and Muttaburrasaurus . The poles were too cold for crocodiles, and became the last stronghold for large amphibians such as Koolasuchus . Pterosaurs got larger as genera such as Tapejara and Ornithocheirus evolved. Mammals continued to expand their range: eutriconodonts produced fairly large, wolverine -like predators such as Repenomamus and Gobiconodon , early therians began to expand into metatherians and eutherians , and cimolodont multituberculates went on to become common in

4672-438: The start of the Neogene . Later in the Neogene, a sudden shift to fluvial deposits suggests a dramatic return to wetter conditions. The following sedimentary geological formations have been deposited in the basin: Congo is a traditional name for the equatorial Middle Africa that lies between the Gulf of Guinea and the African Great Lakes . The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from

4745-433: The top of the food chain. The first true crocodiles evolved, pushing the large amphibians to near extinction. All-in-all, archosaurs rose to rule the world. Meanwhile, the first true mammals evolved, remaining relatively small, but spreading widely; the Jurassic Castorocauda , for example, had adaptations for swimming, digging and catching fish. Fruitafossor , from the late Jurassic Period about 150 million years ago,

4818-407: The world and is an important source of water used in agriculture and energy generation. The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon rainforest in size, with 300 million hectares compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon. Because of its size and diversity the basin's forest is important for mitigating climate change in its role as

4891-531: Was about the size of a chipmunk, and its teeth, forelimbs and back suggest that it dug open the nests of social insects (probably termites , as ants had not yet appeared) ; Volaticotherium was able to glide for short distances, such as modern flying squirrels . The first multituberculates such as Rugosodon evolved. The Middle Jurassic spans from 175 to 163 million years ago. During this epoch, dinosaurs flourished as huge herds of sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus , filled

4964-411: Was agreed between the World Bank and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 2002. The World Bank agreed to provide $ 90 million of development aid to Democratic Republic of the Congo with the provision that the government did not issue any new concessions granting logging companies rights to exploit the forest. The deal also prohibited the renewal of existing concessions. The government has written

5037-403: Was comparatively mild. The sole major Mesozoic orogeny occurred in what is now the Arctic , creating the Innuitian orogeny , the Brooks Range , the Verkhoyansk and Cherskiy Ranges in Siberia, and the Khingan Mountains in Manchuria. This orogeny was related to the opening of the Arctic Ocean and suturing of the North China and Siberian cratons to Asia. In contrast, the era featured

5110-410: Was distant from its shores, temperatures fluctuated greatly, and the interior probably included expansive deserts . Abundant red beds and evaporites such as halite support these conclusions, but some evidence suggests the generally dry climate of the Triassic was punctuated by episodes of increased rainfall. The most important humid episodes were the Carnian Pluvial Event and one in the Rhaetian ,

5183-483: Was dominated by deserts in the interior of the Pangaea supercontinent. The Earth had just witnessed a massive die-off in which 95% of all life became extinct, and the most common vertebrate life on land were Lystrosaurus , labyrinthodonts , and Euparkeria along with many other creatures that managed to survive the Permian extinction. Temnospondyls reached peak diversity during the early Triassic. The Middle Triassic, from 247 to 237 million years ago, featured

5256-578: Was still dominated by cycads and ferns 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. The extinction of nearly all animal species at the end of

5329-485: Was the height of archosaur diversity, and the first birds and eutherian mammals also appeared. Some have argued that insects 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. At

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