16 Facts About Triassic

Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.

The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era.

Global climate during the Triassic was mostly hot and dry, with deserts spanning much of Pangaea's interior.

Triassic was named in 1834 by Friedrich August von Alberti, after a succession of three distinct rock layers that are widespread in southern Germany: the lower Buntsandstein, the middle Muschelkalk and the upper Keuper.

Practically all deep-ocean crust present during the Triassic has been recycled through the subduction of oceanic plates, so very little is known about the open ocean from this time period.

Related searches

Terrestrial Triassic biostratigraphy is mostly based on terrestrial and freshwater tetrapods, as well as conchostracans, a type of fast-breeding crustacean which lived in lakes and hypersaline environments.

Eustatic sea level in the Triassic was consistently low compared to the other geological periods.

In marine environments, new modern types of corals appeared in the Early Triassic, forming small patches of reefs of modest extent compared to the great reef systems of Devonian or modern times.

Ray-finned fishes went through a remarkable diversification during the Triassic, leading to peak diversity during the Middle Triassic; however, the pattern of this diversification is still not well understood due to a taphonomic megabias.

Large predatory actinopterygians such as saurichthyids and birgeriids appeared in the Early Triassic and became widespread and successful during the period as a whole.

The Triassic survivors were aquatic or semi-aquatic, and were represented by Tupilakosaurus, Thabanchuia, Branchiosauridae and Micropholis, all of which died out in Early Triassic, and the successful Stereospondyli, with survivors into the Cretaceous Period.

Archosauriforms were diverse in the Triassic, including various terrestrial and semiaquatic predators of all shapes and sizes.

True archosaurs appeared in the early Triassic, splitting into two branches: Avemetatarsalia and Pseudosuchia.

Triassic dinosaurs evolved in the Carnian and include early sauropodomorphs and theropods.

Pseudosuchians were far more ecologically dominant in the Triassic, including large herbivores, large carnivores, and the first crocodylomorphs.

Triassic Period ended with a mass extinction, which was particularly severe in the oceans; the conodonts disappeared, as did all the marine reptiles except ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.