Artwork by Karen Carr
This marine scene shows an assortment of marine tetrapods that lived in Cretaceous oceans near the end of the "Age of Reptiles," including a sea turtle, an early flightless marine bird, a large mosasaur and a long-necked elasmosaur. In April 2015, a team of Smithsonian scientists synthesized decades of scientific discoveries to illuminate the common and unique patterns driving the extraordinary transitions that whales, dolphins, seals and other species underwent as they moved from land to sea, offering a comprehensive look at how life in the ocean has responded to environmental change from the Triassic to the Anthropocene. (artwork by Karen Carr)
