Triassic+Trumanator

Trumanator 12/5/11

__Triassic Period__

The Triassic period was a wondrous time where mammals and dinosaurs first sprung up, reptiles, bugs, and all sorts of marine life thrived, and in general when most of earth’s life was rebuilt. The Triassic begins 248 miliion years ago, directly after the Permo-Triassic extinction, the single biggest extinction of all time: it knocked off **//95 %//** of all life. This marked the end of the Permian period and the Paleozoic era. The period after the Triassic was Jurassic,which started 206 million years ago. During the Jurassic, D inosaurs ruled the earth, the first birds appeared, etc. Though these periods may have been interesting, nothing compares to the exotic and intriguing world of the Triassic. It wasn’t called the “Age of Reptiles” for nothing!

Imagine all the continents and land in the world were combined to form one massive super continent. If you can picture this, you will probably have a good idea of how the plate tectonics and landforms looked for most of the Triassic. Pangea, the largest continent in the history of the earth, was the center of the world, surrounded by the Panthalasa Ocean. The climate was hot and dry in the center area of Pangea, as it kept the land away from water and took away that cool and chilly ocean breeze. Massachusetts at that time was in Laurasia with Europe and most of today’s northern hemisphere. Pangea held up very well for the majority of the Triassic, but by the end the sea floor had begun to spread, splitting Gondwana (most of the landmasses in today’s southern hemisphere) and Laurasia apart and cutting Pangea in half.

The Triassic may not have been the most active period as far as rocks and landforms go, but a few changes did occur. First off, the mountains we now call the western ranges sprung up on the west coast of North America. Another landform change occurred when North America and Africa crashed together and formed the Appalachian Mountains. Many scientists believe that the Triassic may have been full of large, open savannas filled with low growing plants. As far as rocks go, people have found Triassic rubble and sediment in the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Texas, and many states east of the Appalachian Mountains. Scientists have also found fossils such as Coelophysis, Phytosaurs, and Cynodonts around these parts.

Though all the time periods have some sort of new interesting life form, the Triassic is simp y bursting with life. In the animal department, there were really 3 groups: Holdovers from the Paleozoic-Triassic extinction, new groups which popped up briefly, and new dominant groups that controlled the Mesozoic era. Dominant I nvertebrates included arthropods, spiders, millipedes, scorpions, and cockroaches. Marine animals such as sharks were abundant. On land, the most dominant vertebrae of the Triassic era was the reptile. These included frogs, salamanders, snakes, etc. New life forms include turtles, crocodiles, small scavenging dinosaurs, and even the first, rodent like ancestor of the mammal(cynodonts). Plant life in the Triassic was heavily dominated by seed plants, such as conifers and Ginkgos. They were literally EVERYWHERE. There were also many seed ferns. The ground was covered in single cell organisms such as moss. No matter where you looked during the Triassic, there would always be some type of interesting life form, landmass, or even rock. As the old folks say, everything was better in the good ol’ days.



I really wanted my next project to be about the Triassic period, mainly because I LOVE dinosaurs. The fact that this period is the first time Pangea broke apart also interests me because it was a huge changing point in the shaping of the continents.I had not been this excited for a school project in a long time!

LINKS
Bibliography Good Site #1: UCMP Berkeley-Triassic Good Site #2: National Geographic My conclusion paragraph