Phanerozoic of Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana in an extinction known as the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction. Sea levels rose, destroying fern prairies and creating shallows. Ichthyosaurs became extinct whereas sauropods, as a whole, did not; in fact, some species, like "Titanosaurus", lived until the K-T extinction. The increase in sea-levels opened up the Atlantic sea way which would continue to get larger over time. The divided world would give opportunity for the diversification of new dinosaurs. The Cretaceous is the longest period in the Mesozoic, spans from 145 million to 66 million years ago, and is divided into two epochs: Early Cretaceous,
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 Despite its somewhat outdated view of dinosaurs, "The Age of Reptiles" is still notable for its historical and