The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) has long been proposed as having a causal relationship with the end-Triassic extinction event (∼201.5 Ma). In North America and northern Africa, CAMP is preserved as multiple basaltic units interbedded with uppermost Triassic to lowermost Jurassic sediments. However, it has been unclear whether this apparent pulsing was a local feature, or if pulses...

The Spathian (late Early Triassic) Virgin Formation of south-western Utah (U.S.A.) yields a comparatively diverse benthic fauna that flourished 2 Ma after the end-Permian mass extinction. In this study, we present quantitative palaeoecological data, which are analysed in the context of their depositional environments. This integrated approach helps to discriminate between effects of the end-Per...

Phylogenetic hypotheses, biogeographic dispersal models, and evolutionary scenarios are difficult to form but easy to reject: a single fossil may be sufficient. Previously neglected or inaccessible regions bear high potential for the discovery of such fossils, because they shed light on new faunas with unorthodox combinations of taxa, and sometimes reveal representatives of clades that were not...

Actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes) successfully passed through four of the big five mass extinction events of the Phanerozoic, but the effects of these crises on the group are poorly understood. Many researchers have assumed that the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME) and end-Triassic extinction (ETE) had little impact on actinopterygians, despite devastating many other groups. Here, two m...

Ornithischian dinosaur body fossils are extremely rare in Triassic rocks worldwide, and to date the majority of such fossils consist of isolated teeth. Revueltosaurus is the most common Upper Triassic ornithischian dinosaur and is known from Chinle Group strata in New Mexico and Arizona. Historically, all large (>1 cm tall) and many small ornithischian dinosaur teeth from the Chinle have been r...

BACKGROUND The pre-Jurassic record of terrestrial wood borings is poorly resolved, despite body fossil evidence of insect diversification among xylophilic clades starting in the late Paleozoic. Detailed analysis of borings in petrified wood provides direct evidence of wood utilization by invertebrate animals, which typically comprises feeding behaviors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We descr...

Abstract The tectonic stress field of the southwestern Ordos Basin during Late Triassic is controversial. major controversy whether was a compressional basin throughout or it transformed from an extensional into this period. We divided early to middle and late terminal periods. Two paleotectonic simulation models were constructed using finite-element software (ANSYS 10). Our results showed high...