The Story of Evolution 99 



and an exuberance of air-breathing insects and their allies ; in the 

 Permian the first reptiles and a new flora. 



THE GEOLOGICAL MIDDLE AGES 



1 



The Mesozoic Era 



In a broad way the Mesozoic era corresponds with the 

 Golden Age of reptiles, and with the climax of the Conifer and 

 Cycad flora, which was established in the Permian. But among 

 the Conifers and Cycads our modern flowering plants were be- 

 ginning to show face tentatively, just like birds and mammals 

 among the great reptiles. 



In the Triassic period the exuberance of reptilian life which 

 marked the Permian was continued. Besides Turtles which still 

 persist, there were Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Dinosaurs, and 

 Pterosaurs, none of which lasted beyond the Mesozoic era. Of 

 great importance was the rise of the Dinosaurs in the Triassic, 

 for it is highly probable that within the limits of this vigorous 

 and plastic stock some of them bipeds we must look for the 

 ancestors of both birds and mammals. Both land and water were 

 dominated by reptiles, some of which attained to gigantic size. 

 Had there been any zoologist in those days, he would have been 

 very sagacious indeed if he had suspected that reptiles did not 

 represent the climax of creation. 



The Flying Dragons 



The Jurassic period showed a continuance of the reptilian 

 splendour. They radiated in many directions, becoming adapted 

 to many haunts. Thus there were many Fish Lizards paddling 

 in the seas, many types of terrestrial dragons stalking about on 

 land, many swiftly gliding alligator-like forms, and the Flying 

 Dragons which began in the Triassic attained to remarkable suc- 

 cess and variety. Their wing was formed by the extension of 

 a great fold of skin on the enormously elongated outermost 



