Triassic Late
Friedrich August Von Alberti (1795-1878) named the Trias in 1834. It is named after the Latin word trias (three) because German (European) rocks of the time can be divided into three ages. The three distinctive formation are (from the bottom up) the Bunter (brown sandstone and red beds), the Muschelkalk, and the Keuper. These turn out to be local rock units that cannot be applied globally.
The Triassic Period was a Hot House world, with no evidence of ice at the poles and it was the beginning of the age of the dinosaurs. During that time all the land on earth was united in one gigantic C-shaped supercontinent called Pangea for \"all earth\" with at the inside of the “C” a huge bay called the Sea of Tethys. Only a few relatively small pieces of continental crust, Manchuria (northern China), eastern China, Indochina, and bits of central Asia, remained unattached as large islands scattered across the eastern Tethys Sea. The earth was much drier during the Triassic Period than it is today. There where hot dry deserts and inland areas, far from the sea. Most plants grew around lakes or by pools of water that formed after rain but later dried up.
Early in the Triassic, Pangaea began to split apart. Northern Laurasia (North America plus Eurasia) began to separate from southern Gondwana (South America, Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia). As North Africa and southern Europe began to split apart, a gradual sea level rise flooded South and Central Europe. The spreading rift that began to split North Africa from Europe in the Early Triassic, continued to extend westward, and began to split eastern North America apart from North Africa.
The Triassic follows the largest extinction event in the history of life at the end of the Permian the so called Permo-Triassic extinction. About 225 million years ago, toward the end of the Triassic Period, the first real dinosaurs appeared. But it would not be until the Jurassic Period that the dinosaurs really came into their own. Most of the interior of the land, was desert and climates were generally arid with widespread evaporites, and the north-south temperature was probably more gradual than today.
During the Triassic plants such as yews and ginkgoes or maidenhaar trees, Ferns, tree ferns and horsetails tree ferns, conifers and cycads (a palm-like plant) grew in damper areas. There where no flowering plants. There were also mammal-like reptiles, little mammals, and four-legged reptiles known as thecodonts, which scientists think were the ancestors of the dinosaurs. But, there were also animals we know today, such as frogs and crocodiles and turtles.
At the end of the Triassic about 50% of all terrestrial vertebrate families were wiped out at , including the afore-mentioned non-ornithodiran groups. A similar mass extinction is seen in the marine record. The sudden drop in animal diversity corresponds to a dramatic change in the plants, with a diverse plant community giving way to a very low diversity community almost entirely dominated by the cheiroleps (at least in the tropics) in the earliest Jurassic. The Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction may have opened the doors for the dinosaurs by wiping out their competition.
A
Abrictosaurus consors
Agnosphitys cromhallensis
Agrosaurus macgillivrayi
Aliwalia rex
Alwalkeria
Alwalkeria maleriensis
Antetonitrus ingenipes
Asylosaurus yalensis
Avalonia sanfordi [1]
Avalonia sanfordi [2]
Avalonianus
Avipes dillstedtianus
Azendohsaurus
Azendohsaurus laaroussi (1)
Azendohsaurus laaroussi (2)
B
Blikanasaurus cromptoni
C
Camelotia borealis
Camposaurus arizonensis
Caseosaurus crosbyensis
Chindesaurus bryansmalli
Chromogisaurus novasi
Coelophysis
Coelophysis bauri
Coelophysis longicollis
Coelophysis willistoni
Coelurus bauri
Coelurus longicollis
Coloradisaurus
Coloradisaurus brevis
D
Daemonosaurus chauliodus
Dimodosaurus poligniensis
Dinosaurus gresslyi
Dolichosuchus cristatus
Dromicosaurus gracilis
E
Efraasia diagnostica
Elachistosuchus huenei
Eocursor parvus
Eodromaeus murphi
Eoraptor lunensis
Eucnemesaurus fortis
Eucoelophysis baldwini
Euskelosaurus africanus
Euskelosaurus browni
Euskelosaurus molengraaffi
F
Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis
G
Galtonia
Galtonia gibbidens
Gigantoscelus molengraaffi
Gojirasaurus quayi
Gresslyosaurus
Gresslyosaurus ingens
Gresslyosaurus robustus
Gresslyosaurus torgeri
Gryponyx transvaalensis
Guaibasaurus candelariai
Gyposaurus sinensis
H
Halticosaurus liliensternus
Halticosaurus longotarsus
\"Halticosaurus orbitoangulatus\" NN
Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
I
Isanosaurus attavipachi
Ischisaurus cattoi
J
Jaklapallisaurus asymmetrica
K
Krzyzanowskisaurus hunti
L
Lessemsaurus sauropoides
Leyesaurus marayensis
Likhoelesaurus ingens
Liliensternus
Liliensternus airelensis
Liliensternus liliensterni
Longosaurus longicollis
Lophostropheus airelensis
Lucianosaurus wildi
Lufengosaurus hunei
Lufengosaurus magnus
Lukousaurus yini
Lycorhinus consors
M
Massospondylus
Massospondylus hislopi
Megalosaurus cambrensis ?
Megalosaurus cloacinus
Megalosaurus obtusus
Melanorosaurus
Melanorosaurus readi
Mussaurus patagonicus
N
Nambalia roychowdhurii
O
Orinosaurus capensis
Ornithosuchus
Orosaurus
P
Pachysaurus
Pachysauriscus
Pachysaurops
Pachysaurus ajax
Pachysaurus giganteus
Pachysaurus magnus
Pachysaurus wetzelianus
Palaeosaurus diagnosticus
Palaeosaurus fraserianus
Pampadromaeus barberenai
Panphagia protos
Pantydraco caducus
Pekinosaurus olseni
Pisanosaurus mertii
Plateosauravus
Plateosaurus
Plateosaurus cullingworthi
Plateosaurus diagnosticus ?
Plateosaurus elisae
Plateosaurus engelhardti
Plateosaurus erlenbergiensis
Plateosaurus fraasianus
Plateosaurus integer
Plateosaurus longiceps
Plateosaurus ornatus
Plateosaurus plieningeri
Plateosaurus poligniensis
Plateosaurus quenstedti
Plateosaurus reinigeri
Plateosaurus robustus
Plateosaurus stormbergenis
Plateosaurus torgeri
Plateosaurus trossingensis
Poposaurus gracilis
Procompsognathus triassicus
Protecovasaurus lucasi
Protoavis texensis
Pterospondylus trielbae
R
Revueltosaurus callenderi
Rileyasuchus bristolensis
Rioarribasaurus colberti
Riojasaurus incertus
Ruehleia bedheimensis
S
Sacisaurus agudoensis
Saltopus elgininsis
Sanjuansaurus gordilloi
Saturnalia tupiniquim
Sellosaurus fraasi
Sellosaurus gracilis
Shuvosaurus inexpectatus
Silesaurus opolensis
Spondylosoma absconditum
Staurikosaurus pricei
Staurikosaurus sp. (1)
Staurikosaurus sp. (2)
Strenusaurus procerus
T
Tanystropheus
Tanystropheus posthumus
Tanystropheus willistoni
Tanystrosuchus
Tawa hallae
Tawasaurus minor
Technosaurus smalli
Tecovasaurus murryi
Teratosaurus minor
Teratosaurus trossingensis
Teyuwasu barbarenai
Thecodontosaurus
Thecodontosaurus antiquus
Thecodontosaurus caducus
Thecodontosaurus diagnosticus
Thecodontosaurus gibbidens
Thecodontosaurus hermannianus
Thotobolosaurus
U
Unaysaurus tolentinoi
V
Velocipes guerichi
W
Walkeria maleriensis
Z
Zanclodon laevis
Zanclodon plieningeri
Zanclodon quenstedti
Zupaysaurus rougieri