Mesozoic the Phanerozoic Eon, preceded by the Paleozoic ("ancient life") and succeeded by the Cenozoic ("new life"). The era is subdivided into three major periods: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, which are further subdivided into a number of epochs and stages. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climate and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses
The Age of Reptiles the mural's beginning to the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Each period's length on the mural is proportional to the period's length in geologic time. Each period of time is divided by large trees in the foreground. Animal species are in bold. Devonian Carboniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous "The Age of Reptiles" won Zallinger several awards. Zallinger was awarded with a Pulitzer Fellowship in Art in 1949, and the painting was featured as a postage stamp in 1970. Despite its somewhat outdated view of dinosaurs, "The Age of Reptiles" is still notable for its historical and