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Triassic Period
History > -13.7Gy to -7000 AT: Preterragen Era
Science > Planetology > Geology
Science > Paleontology
The first period of the Mesozoic Era, Old Earth, lasting from 251 to 199 million years ago.Science > Planetology > Geology
Science > Paleontology
The land formed a single continent, called Pangaea. Most of the Triassic was ruled by the thecodont archosaurs and proto-mammalian therapsid small carnivores and large herbivores, and ichthyosaurs the dominant marine life, but during the later Triassic dinosaurs, mammals, turtles, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs all appeared. Among plants, conifer forests were common. In the seas, molluscs were the dominant invertebrates, especially ceratitid ammonites, which were so abundant and diverse it is sometimes suggested, especially by cephalopod provolves, that the Triassic should properly be termed the "Age of Ceratitids".
The Triassic period ended with a minor (Class Three) mass extinction 213 mya, in which 35% of all animal families die out, allowing the dinosaurs to expand into many niches. The most important current terrestrial Triassic ecosystems that have been lazurogened are located in Triassic Park, a large nature reserve on Nova Terra's single Pangaea-like continent. However for sheer scope and biological diversity one cannot go past the Utopia Sphere world of Cephalotopia, which features both provolved baseline, and lazurogened cephalopods of all kinds, including some 214,000 species of authentic and quasi-authentic Triassic ammonites.
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 09 January 2002.
Initially published on 09 January 2002.
