Triassic Earth
TRIASSIC

THE TRIASSIC PERIOD
251 TO 200 Million Years Ago

The Age of Deserts
The First Dinosaurs appear in a bleak post-Extinction World
. . . the Lord . . . led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts . . . - Jeremiah 2:6

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Paleo-Geography

  • Pangea supercontinent combines all major landmasses
  • Panthalassa combines all oceans except Tethys
  • Climate very hot and dry with huge deserts
  • Period ends in large extinction

Life

  
 
Lystrosaurus (left)   one of few Permian   survivors, wandered   widely over Triassic   badlands

 (Image :John Sibbick)

Early Dinosaurs move across the bleak Triassic world:
Plateosaurus (back left) and Coelophysis (front)
(Image: John Sibbick)

 


Therapsids like Cynognathus (near right) dominated the early Triassic, but conditions favored the Archosaurs. TheTherapsids shrank and became the first Mammals (like Megazostrodon, far right). They stayed small and hidden in the Dinosaur Age that followed.

    (Image: Dorling Kindersley left, Piero Angela right)

 

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