50 Fun Facts About Triassic

The Triassic is the first period of which geological era?

It is also the shortest of the era's three periods, at about 50 million years.

Which period came immediately after the Triassic?

The boundary between them is marked by a mass extinction that cleared the way for the dinosaurs.

Roughly how many million years did the Triassic last?

It ran from about 252 to 201 million years ago.

The name Triassic refers to a 'triad' of what?

The three are the Buntsandstein, the Muschelkalk and the Keuper.

Who named the Triassic in 1834?

He was a salt-mining inspector from Rottweil who worked out that three German rock layers formed one system.

The Muschelkalk, the middle of the three German Triassic layers, is what kind of rock?

The lower Buntsandstein is a colourful sandstone and the upper Keuper a coloured clay.

Which supercontinent dominated the globe during the Triassic?

It only began to split into Laurasia and Gondwana at the very end of the period.

What was the Triassic climate like across most of the supercontinent's interior?

Deserts covered much of the continent, and there is no evidence of ice at either pole.

Which mass extinction opened the Triassic?

Nicknamed the Great Dying, it wiped out about 81 percent of marine species.

The Permian-Triassic extinction is colloquially known by what name?

It is the biggest of the 'Big Five' extinctions, and the only one to badly hit insects.

Which volcanic province is blamed for the extinction that opened the Triassic?

Its eruptions belched sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide, leaving oceans oxygen-starved.

Which was the hottest portion of the entire Phanerozoic Eon?

It followed straight after the greenhouse gases discharged by the Siberian Traps.

No deposits of which resource are known from the start of the Triassic, a 'gap' to geologists?

Explanations range from acid rain to the extinction of every peat-swamp plant.

The strong contrast between the supercontinent and the global ocean triggered what weather phenomenon?

The supercontinent's size gave it very hot summers and cool winters, with the ocean unable to moderate them.

Which humid interval, around 234 million years ago, interrupted the dry Triassic?

It was set off by the eruption of the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province.

Early Triassic archosaurs split into a crocodile line and a bird line; what is the bird line called?

The bird line was a minor player at first but produced the earliest pterosaurs and dinosaurs in the Late Triassic.

Which branch of archosaurs, ancestors of crocodilians, dominated Triassic ecosystems?

They included armoured herbivorous aetosaurs and big 'rauisuchian' carnivores.

Which Triassic archosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly?

Early long-tailed forms appeared in the Norian and quickly spread worldwide.

In which Triassic epoch did the dinosaurs first appear?

They evolved in the Carnian age, and most were small predators.

Lystrosaurus, the most common land vertebrate of the Early Triassic, was what kind of animal?

It had just two tusk-like teeth and a horny beak, and probably dug burrows.

After the extinction, what share of land vertebrates in one South African zone were Lystrosaurus?

Fossils have turned up in Antarctica, India, China, Russia and South Africa.

Which group of cynodont therapsids gave rise to the first mammals during the Carnian?

The 'Triassic Takeover' by archosaurs may have pushed early mammals into a small, nocturnal, furry lifestyle.

Tanystropheus is famous for what extreme feature?

Its 13 neck vertebrae were once mistaken for the wing bones of a pterosaur.

Where is Monte San Giorgio, the Middle Triassic fossil lagoon rich in marine reptiles?

Its anoxic bottom water kept scavengers away, much like the Jurassic Solnhofen limestone.

Which highly successful marine reptiles appeared in Early Triassic seas?

The ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were the only marine reptiles to survive the end of the period.

The giant Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus is the state fossil of which US state?

At least 37 specimens have come from the Luning Formation, viewable at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park.

The earliest turtles, such as Proganochelys, appeared during which age of the Late Triassic?

The Norian also saw the first long-tailed pterosaurs spread worldwide.

The largest Triassic amphibians, such as Mastodonsaurus, reached what length?

These temnospondyls were aquatic survivors of the end-Permian extinction.

Which modern amphibian group had its progenitors present by the Early Triassic?

The lissamphibians only became common in the Jurassic once the temnospondyls faded.

Which shark-like cartilaginous fish dominated Triassic fresh and marine waters?

Coelacanths, meanwhile, hit their highest post-Devonian diversity in the Early Triassic.

Which plant group diversified in the Late Triassic yet survives today as a single species?

Ginkgo biloba is the lone survivor.

Coelophysis, one of the earliest known dinosaurs, was what sort of animal?

It grew up to about 3 metres long and is one of the most specimen-rich dinosaur genera.

Nearly a thousand Coelophysis were preserved in a quarry at which site, later Georgia O'Keeffe's summer home?

The 21,000-acre retreat is owned by the Presbyterian Church and often used as a film location.

Coelophysis was named the official state fossil of which state in 1981?

It is now the logo of the state's Museum of Natural History.

Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus, among the earliest dinosaurs, come from which country?

Both were found in the Ischigualasto Formation, about 231 million years old.

Herrerasaurus takes its name from whom?

Victorino Herrera found it in 1958; the species was described by Osvaldo Reig in 1963.

Ischigualasto Provincial Park is nicknamed what for its lunar-looking landscape?

UNESCO listed it with neighbouring Talampaya as a World Heritage Site in 2000.

Plateosaurus, nicknamed the 'Swabian lindworm', is what kind of dinosaur?

Adults ranged wildly from 4.8 to 10 metres long, a plasticity unusual for a dinosaur.

Postosuchus, an apex predator of Late Triassic North America, belonged to which archosaur lineage?

At 5-6 metres it dwarfed contemporary predatory dinosaurs such as Coelophysis.

The petrified logs of Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park come from which colourful rock unit?

The trees lived about 225 million years ago, and the Painted Desert takes its name from the same colourful beds.

Which giant crocodile-like reptiles are the most common fossils in the Petrified Forest?

They were wiped out completely by the end-Triassic extinction.

Quebec's Manicouagan crater, once blamed for the end-Triassic extinction, formed how many million years ago?

That is about 10 million years too early to have caused the extinction.

Which volcanic event, tied to the supercontinent's rifting, is the leading suspect for the end-Triassic extinction?

It covered some 10 million square kilometres yet lasted only about a million years.

Which two marine reptile groups survived the end-Triassic extinction?

The conodonts vanished entirely, and about 22 percent of marine families disappeared.

For roughly how many million years did dinosaurs dominate after the end-Triassic extinction cleared their rivals?

The true 'Age of Dinosaurs' is the Jurassic and Cretaceous, not the Triassic.

The Triassic began roughly how many million years ago?

It ran for about 50.5 million years to 201.4 million years ago, the shortest period of the Mesozoic.

Which igneous province's eruption around 234 million years ago triggered the Carnian Pluvial Event?

Its abrupt warming ended the Ladinian-Carnian cooling and ushered in a warm interval lasting until about 227 million years ago.

Which extinct 'seed fern' tree dominated Gondwanan forests in the Middle and Late Triassic?

It belonged to the order Corystospermales, while Bennettitales rose to prominence in global floras at the same time.

What is Atopodentatus notable for among Triassic marine reptiles?

It swam alongside nothosaurs, placodonts and the very first plesiosaurs in Middle Triassic seas.

Which cynodont was a characteristic top predator of Gondwana in the Olenekian and Anisian ages?

Three therapsid groups survived into the Triassic: dicynodonts, therocephalians and cynodonts, the last of which led to mammals.