The Ancients The Age of Dinosaurs with Henry Gee
15 snips
Mar 5, 2026 
Dr Henry Gee, paleontologist and science writer known for bringing deep-time to life, guides a tour of dinosaur history. He traces recovery after the Great Dying and the rise of early dinosaurs on Pangaea. He explores sauropod gigantism, the origins and spread of feathers, Jurassic continental breakup, Cretaceous endemism, and the impact that ended their reign.
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Rescued Chickens Proved Birds Are Dinosaurs
- Henry Gee recounts watching his wife's tussle with aggressive rescued battery chickens to illustrate that birds are living dinosaurs.
- He uses the chickens' behaviour and appearance to argue birds are obvious dinosaur descendants in everyday life.
Lystrosaurus As The Triassic Survivor Favorite
- Henry Gee praises Lystrosaurus as a 'disaster taxon' and his favourite fossil because it dominated post‑Permian ecosystems and made burrows that preserve fossils.
- He points to Karoo beds in southern Africa and burrowed specimens as reasons we know so much about them.
End Triassic Rifting Cleared Space For Dinosaurs
- The end‑Triassic mass extinction coincided with Pangaea rifting and volcanism that opened the Atlantic seaway and removed many Triassic specialist reptiles.
- Henry Gee frames this extinction as a geographic and climatic turnover that let dinosaurs expand into vacated niches in the Jurassic.
