The Great Dying
This massive, all-encompassing supercontinent had just formed by the time the Triassic Period began roughly 252 million years ago.
Pangaea
This famous "sail-backed" predator from the Permian period is often mistakenly labeled a Triassic dinosaur, but it actually went extinct long before the Triassic even started!
Dimetrodon
This iconic, small, bipedal carnivore is one of the earliest known dinosaurs, and its fossils have been famously dug up at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.
Coelophysis
These ancient, aquatic, crocodile-like predators had incredibly long, narrow snouts that were perfectly adapted for hunting Triassic fish.
Phytosaurs
Due to all the continents locking together into Pangaea Wikipedia Mesozoic, much of the Triassic interior was covered in this arid, dry biome.
A desert
This catastrophic event marked the beginning of the Triassic Period, wiping out up to 95% of all marine life and 70% of land species.
The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event
Often called "land crocodiles", apex predators like Postosuchus ruled the Triassic landscape, but they belonged to a completely different branch of the reptile family.
Rauisuchians
This genus of early prosauropod was one of the very first large, long-necked "long neck" dinosaurs, making an appearance during the Late Triassic.
Plateosaurus
This bizarre reptile is famous for having a neck longer than its entire body, much like a prehistoric version of a giraffe mixed with a fishing rod.
Tanystropheus
This single, massive global ocean completely surrounded the supercontinent of Pangaea.
The Panthalassa Ocean
The end of the Triassic Period wasn't quite as devastating as the beginning, but it cleared the way for these dominant reptiles to take over the next period of the Mesozoic.
Dinosaurs
Resembling giant, armored armadillos, these plant-eating archosaurs were common contemporaries of the first dinosaurs.
Aetosaurs
The first true representatives of these highly successful, milk-producing, warm-blooded animals quietly scurried under the feet of Triassic dinosaurs.
Mammals
This terrifying apex predator had a skull as long as a T-Rex's and preyed on the early dinosaurs before the Jurassic extinction wiped it out.
Saurosuchus
Because there were no vast polar ice caps, the Triassic climate worldwide was notoriously characterized by this specific weather condition.
Monsoon Season
This massive impact structure in modern-day Quebec was initially thought to be the cause of the Late Triassic extinction, though modern dating places it millions of years earlier.
The Manicouagan Crater
These marine predators looked remarkably like modern dolphins or sharks, but they were actually highly adapted marine reptiles that first appeared in the Triassic.
Ichthyosaurs
Discovered in Tanzania, this creature is recognized as one of the oldest known dinosaurs and a primitive ancestor of the giant, meat-eating theropods.
Nyasasaurus
These hardy, slow-moving amphibians grew to the size of a modern compact car and ruled freshwater rivers and lakes.
Mastodonsaurus
Located between Laurasia and Gondwana, this immense wedge-shaped body of water was the eastern equivalent to the modern Mediterranean.
The Tethys Ocean
This crucial group of terrestrial vertebrates survived the Permian Extinction and diversified rapidly in the Triassic; today, only their warm-blooded, feathered descendants remain.
Archosaurs
These first true flying reptiles took to the Triassic skies, and despite popular belief are not classified as dinosaurs.
Pterosaurs
This robust, early meat-eating dinosaur from Argentina was a dominant predator before the Jurassic even began.
Herrerasaurus
This massive dicynodont synapsid—a distant cousin of mammals—grew to the size of an elephant and was one of the largest land animals in the Late Triassic.
Lisowicia
This specific, lush tropical forest formation in Arizona is famous for preserving an abundance of fossilized trees from the Late Triassic.
The Petrified Forest