The Triassic (tri-ass-ic) is the earliest period of the Mesozoic era, right smack-bang inbetween the Permian and Jurassic periods.
During the Triassic (roughly 252 to 201 million years ago) the world was a single 'C' shaped super-continent known as Pangea (a Greek term meaning "all the land"), cutting right through the equator from pole to pole and surrounded by Panthalassa (funnily enough, a Greek term meaning "all the sea").
Just before the first Archosaurs - the ruling lizards - began to evolve the world was subjected to the most destructive mass extinction since time began. This was far worse than the K-Pg extinction that saw off all non-bird dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, with some experts estimating that 95% of all life forms were destroyed. Never had life on earth been so close to total annihilation but, on the plus side, many eco-systems were now empty and available on long-term lets, so the archosaurs (including dinosaurs) and crocodile-like rauisuchians began their march to global domination.
During the Triassic (roughly 252 to 201 million years ago) the world was a single 'C' shaped super-continent known as Pangea (a Greek term meaning "all the land"), cutting right through the equator from pole to pole and surrounded by Panthalassa (funnily enough, a Greek term meaning "all the sea").
Just before the first Archosaurs - the ruling lizards - began to evolve the world was subjected to the most destructive mass extinction since time began. This was far worse than the K-Pg extinction that saw off all non-bird dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, with some experts estimating that 95% of all life forms were destroyed. Never had life on earth been so close to total annihilation but, on the plus side, many eco-systems were now empty and available on long-term lets, so the archosaurs (including dinosaurs) and crocodile-like rauisuchians began their march to global domination.
| T R I A S S I C |
EARLY TRIASSIC | Induan | 252 - 251 mya |
| Olenekian | 251 - 247 mya | ||
| MIDDLE TRIASSIC | Anisian | 247 - 242 mya | |
| Ladinian | 242 - 237 mya | ||
| LATE TRIASSIC | Carnian | 237 - 227 mya | |
| Norian | 227 - 209 mya | ||
| Rhaetian | 209 - 201 mya |
Click here to view dinochecker's A-Z list of Triassic dinosaurs.
View all Periods of the Mesozoic timeline.
Further reading
• Sues H-D (2010) "Triassic Life on Land: The Great Transition (The Critical Moments and Perspectives in Earth History and Paleobiology)".
• Fraser NC and Sues H-D (1997) "In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods".
• Benton MJ (2016) "The Triassic". Current Biology, 26(23): R1214-R1218. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.060
• Tanner LH (2018) "The Late Triassic World: Earth in a Time of Transition"
• Sadler C, Parker W PhD and Ash S PhD (2015) "Dawn of the Dinosaurs: The Late Triassic in the American Southwest".
• Brusatte S (2018) "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World".
• Wignall PB (2017) "The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions".
