The rhynchosaurian archosauromorphs are an important and diverse group of fossil tetrapods that first appeared during the Early Triassic and probably became extinct during the early Late Triassic (early Norian). Here, the early evolution of rhynchosaurs during the Early and early Middle Triassic (Induan-Anisian: 252.2-242 Mya) is reviewed based on new anatomical observations and their implicati...

BACKGROUND Archosaurs (birds, crocodilians and their extinct relatives including dinosaurs) dominated Mesozoic continental ecosystems from the Late Triassic onwards, and still form a major component of modern ecosystems (>10,000 species). The earliest diverse archosaur faunal assemblages are known from the Middle Triassic (c. 244 Ma), implying that the archosaur radiation began in the Early Tri...

Turtles have been known since the Upper Triassic (210Myr old); however, fossils recording the first steps of turtle evolution are scarce and often fragmentary. As a consequence, one of the main questions is whether living turtles (Testudines) originated during the Late Triassic (210Myr old) or during the Middle to Late Jurassic (ca 160Myr old). The discovery of the new fossil turtle, Condorchel...

. Kojima, S., 1989, Mesozoic terrane accretion in Northeast China, SikhkoteAlin and Japan regions: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 69, p. 213-232. Kojima, S. and Mizutani, S., 1987. Triassic and Jurassic Radiolaria from the Nadanhada Range, Northeast China: Transactions and Proceedings Palaeontological Society of Japan, 148, p. 256-275. Kozur, H., 1984a, New radiolarian ta...

Four supergiant and numerous giant gasfields have been discovered in the Southwest Iran which produce from Permian-Triassic carbonates belong to the upper member of Dalan Formation and Kangan Formation. In this research a detailed biostratigraphic, microfacies and sequence stratigraphic study of the late Middle Permian to Triassic successions was undertaken from 850 thin sections prepared from ...

The study area is situated in the Middle part of the Tabas Block. It contains outcrops of rocks that formed along longitudinal faults in Early Cimmerian orogenic phase. The basin subsided along these faults from the Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous, which include two sedimentary cycles. A sedimentary cycle, related to Upper Triassic to Bajocian is known as Shemshak group. Another sedimentary c...

Today’s trip traverses a nearly east-west swath of the southern Colorado Plateau in northeatern Arizona (Fig. 2.1), where the low and barren topography is developed in Permian and Triassic sedimentary rocks. Here, our focus is on the Lower-Middle Triassic Moenkopi Formation. In northern Arizona, east of Flagstaff, the Moenkopi section (Fig. 2.2) is a relatively thin (< 150 m thick) and almost e...

The Great Bank of Guizhou (GBG) is an isolated Late Permian to Late Triassic carbonate platform in the Nanpanjiang Basin of Guizhou Province, southwest China. A faulted syncline exposes a cross section of the platform margin, including a well-preserved Anisian (earliest Middle Triassic) reef complex approximately 1 km wide and 800 meters thick. Geochronologic constraints from associated basin-m...

Flying fishes are extraordinary aquatic vertebrates capable of gliding great distances over water by exploiting their enlarged pectoral fins and asymmetrical caudal fin. Some 50 species of extant flying fishes are classified in the Exocoetidae (Neopterygii: Teleostei), which have a fossil record no older than the Eocene. The Thoracopteridae is the only pre-Cenozoic group of non-teleosts that sh...