Ok, ok, just one more, I promise

"The Carnian Age may mark the high point of Pangea. This is a difficult point to identify since, like the Roman Empire, Pangea continued to grow at the margins long after it had begun to crumble from within. We lack a Triassic Tacitus to describe "the history of a period rich in disasters." Then again, Tacitus would undoubtedly have blamed the whole business on the decadence of the cynodonts, their loss of ancient virtues, the perfidy of the debased archosauromorphs, and the primitive virility and martial spirit of the early dinosaurs. Perhaps we are better off, after all, with the stodgy, but less judgmental language of plate tectonics."

http://www.palaeos.com/Mesozoic/Triassic/Carnian.htm

More fun with learning

"If you're looking at this section, you may be a beginner without much previous knowledge. Of course, you may simply have been searching the web for an old Nirvana CD and you ran across this page because, as it happens, you're also a moron. In either case, its unlikely that you have much background in Mesozoic zoology (or, for that matter, much taste in music). Accordingly, we'll keep this pretty basic and concentrate on the familiar tetrapods.
The Mesozoic came after the Paleozoic. The Paleozoic Era ended with the Permian Period, which ended with a sort of general meltdown, sometimes called the "PT" or "End-Permian" extinction. We still aren't certain exactly what happened, but the fact that much of central Siberia turned into a sort of volcanic bubble bath for a few million years didn't help. This caused, bar none, the worst mass extinction in the last 600 My. Don't get this one confused with the "KT" extinction at the end of the Mesozoic -- the one which finished off the dinosaurs 200 My later. That was a sumo match by comparison. That is, it eliminated some very large and conspicuous folks very quickly, but it was all very quick and civilized."
http://www.palaeos.com/Mesozoic/Mesozoic.htm

This is so funny--ok, its Geology funny

"Life developed from the infant stage of single celled organisms to an adolescence of Eukarya and early plants, fungi, animals. Perhaps other forms developed as well which we know less about because they failed to explode in the Cambrian Explosion. Like all other adolescents, Life grew much larger, discovered sex, and changed its mind frequently about what it was going to be when it grew up. Undoubtedly it tried out many forms and lifestyles which, had we learned of them at the time, we would have sternly disapproved. Life engaged in risky behaviors, such as carelessly spewing so much oxygen into the atmosphere that it nearly poisoned itself until it learned to adapt. It moved out from the warm geothermal vents where, perhaps, it was raised, and nearly froze to death once or twice by wandering into very serious Ice Ages without its mittens. Somehow, in spite of a number of these very close calls, it grew up into the sort of grown-up Life we know today. "
http://www.palaeos.com/Proterozoic/Proterozoic.htm