During the Triassic marine life reached a more or less stable state with the "highest" life forms being fish and marine reptiles. Among invertebrates brachiopods and mollusks remained common. Shelled cephalopods in particular were common and diverse. On land, large sophisticated reptiles became dominant. The first Angiosperms (flowering plants) may have evolved during the Triassic as did the first flying vertebrates although the latter appear to be flying reptiles, not ancestors of birds. |
During the Triassic marine life reached a more or less stable state with the "highest" life forms being fish and marine reptiles. Among invertebrates brachiopod?s and mollusk?s remained common. Shelled cephalopod?s in particular were common and diverse. On land, large sophisticated reptiles became dominant. The first Angiosperms? (flowering plants) may have evolved during the Triassic as did the first flying vertebrates although the latter appear to be flying reptiles, not ancestors of birds. |
The Triassic is usually broken into Lower, Middle, and Upper subdivisions. The Faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:
Rhaetian (Upper Triassic) Noranian/Alaunian? (Upper Triassic) Carnian/Tuvalian?/Julian? (Upper Triassic) Ladinian (Middle Triassic) Anisian/Illyrian?/Pelsonian?/Aegean? (Middle Triassic) Spathian/Olenekian? (Scythian=Early Triassic) Nammalian/Induan?/Olekian?/Smithian?/Dienerian? (Scythian=Early Triassic) Gresbachian/Induan?/Ellesmerian?/Gangetian? (Scythian=Early Triassic)
The Triassic is the first Era of the Mesozoic Era -- the Age of Dinosaurs.
During the Triassic, almost all the Earth's land mass remained concentrated into one Supercontinent -- Pangea?. Climates were warm with no evidence of glaciation. As far as can be determined, there was no land near either pole. Because of the limited shoreline of one continental mass, Triassic marine deposits are relatively rare despite their prominence in Western Europe. In North America, for example, marine deposits are limited to a few exposures in the West.
During the Triassic marine life reached a more or less stable state with the "highest" life forms being fish and marine reptiles. Among invertebrates brachiopod?s and mollusk?s remained common. Shelled cephalopod?s in particular were common and diverse. On land, large sophisticated reptiles became dominant. The first Angiosperms? (flowering plants) may have evolved during the Triassic as did the first flying vertebrates although the latter appear to be flying reptiles, not ancestors of birds.