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Triassic

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A map showing the ancient supercontinent Pangaea as it existed 230 million years ago, with mountains and surrounding oceans.

The Triassic Period

The Triassic was a long time ago, about 251.9 million to 201.4 million years back. It was the first part of a big chunk of time called the Mesozoic Era. This era is famous for dinosaurs, but the Triassic is when their story began!

Back then, almost all the land on Earth was one huge piece called Pangaea. It stretched from the north to the south pole. Because it was so big, the weather was very hot and dry in the middle, but cooler near the poles.

Many new animals appeared in the Triassic. The first dinosaurs showed up near the end of this time. Also, flying animals called pterosaurs took to the skies. On the ground, reptiles were everywhere, and some of them were the ancestors of today's crocodilians.

People know about the Triassic because of the rocks formed during this time. A man named Friedrich August von Alberti noticed three different layers of rock in Germany. He called this time the Triassic, which means "three layers," because of those rocks.

The Triassic ended when many plants and animals disappeared. The land began to split apart, and volcanoes erupted a lot. But some dinosaurs survived, and they became the stars of the next time, the Jurassic Period.

Images

Historical illustrations of plants from the Triassic period.
A map showing how Earth looked 225 million years ago, with modern country outlines for reference.
Natural sandstone formations near Stadtroda, Germany.
A natural limestone formation showing layers of geological rock from the Jena and Karlstadt formations in Hohenlohekreis.
A natural rock formation showing the transition between two geological layers in Bavaria.
A beautiful Monterey Pine forest growing in Prospect Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
A rock formation from the Middle Triassic period in southwestern Utah, showing layers of sediment from ancient oceans.
Artist's reconstruction of Birgeria, an ancient ray-finned fish, for educational use.
Illustration of Mastodonsaurus torvus, an ancient amphibian from the time of the dinosaurs.
Illustration of Tanystropheus, an ancient long-necked reptile from the Triassic period.
An artistic reconstruction of Proterosuchus, an ancient reptile from the early Triassic period, as imagined by a scientist.
An artist’s illustration of Staurikosaurus, an early dinosaur from the Late Triassic period, feeding on a dicynodont.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Triassic, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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