in the arid belts closer to the equator, dinosaurs were absent or extremely rare. Just as in Portugal, there are great fossil sites in Spain, Morocco, and along the eastern coast of North America where you can find plenty of amphibians and reptiles, but nary a dinosaur. All of these places were in the parched arid sector of Pangea during those 10 million years when dinosaurs were beginning to blossom in the more bearable humid regions. It seems these first dinosaurs couldn’t handle the desert heat. It’s an unexpected story line. Dinosaurs didn’t just sweep across Pangea the moment they
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