Here we report on angiosperm-like pollen and Afropollis from the Anisian (Middle Triassic, 247.2-242.0 Ma) of a mid-latitudinal site in Northern Switzerland. Small monosulcate pollen grains with typical reticulate (semitectate) sculpture, columellate structure of the sexine and thin nexine show close similarities to early angiosperm pollen known from the Early Cretaceous. However, they differ i...

The 34-million-year (My) interval of the Late Triassic is marked by the formation of several large impact structures on Earth. Late Triassic impact events have been considered a factor in biotic extinction events in the Late Triassic (e.g., end-Triassic extinction event), but this scenario remains controversial because of a lack of stratigraphic records of ejecta deposits. Here, we report evide...

Dinosaurs arose in the early Triassic in the aftermath of the greatest mass extinction ever and became hugely successful in the Mesozoic. Their initial diversification is a classic example of a large-scale macroevolutionary change. Diversifications at such deep-time scales can now be dissected, modelled and tested. New fossils suggest that dinosaurs originated early in the Middle Triassic, duri...

In conjunction with the Permian-Triassic ecologic crisis approximately 250 million years ago, massive dieback of coniferous vegetation resulted in a degradation of terrestrial ecosystems in Europe. A 4- to 5-million-year period of lycopsid dominance followed, and renewed proliferation of conifers did not occur before the transition between Early and Middle Triassic. We document this delayed re-...

In addition to their devastating effects on global biodiversity, mass extinctions have had a long-term influence on the history of life by eliminating dominant lineages that suppressed ecological change. Here, we test whether the end-Permian mass extinction (252.3 Ma) affected the distribution of tetrapod faunas within the southern hemisphere and apply quantitative methods to analyze four compo...

A new locality of early Late Triassic age in the Richmond basin of east-central Virginia has yielded abundant remains of a diversified assemblage of small to medium-sized tetrapods that closely resembles Southern Hemisphere (Gondwanan) assemblages in the predominance of certain synapsids. Associated palynomorphs indicate an early middle Carnian age for the fossiliferous strata. The discovery su...

Traditional wisdom holds that biotic recovery from the end-Permian extinction was slow and gradual, and was not complete until the Middle Triassic. Here, we report that the evolution of marine predator feeding guilds, and their trophic structure, proceeded faster. Marine reptile lineages with unique feeding adaptations emerged during the Early Triassic (about 248 million years ago), including t...

Early Triassic animal body fossils and trace fossils are small relative to those in older and younger intervals. Size decreases sharply through the end-Permian extinction event and Permian/Triassic boundary, and the smallest sizes are encountered in the parvus and isarcica Zones of the earliest Induan. Animals appearing within these two zones are also exceedingly small, compared to younger cong...

Belmophenopterum rasnitsyni sp. n. is described from the Middle Triassic Madygen locality in Kyrgyzstan. It latest record of genus Rasnitsyn et Aristov, 2004. The Permian Sylviodes Martynov, 1940 and Permian-Triassic are transferred family Sylvaphlebiidae (Reculida) to Mesorthopteridae (Eoblattida).

An ophiuroid assemblage from Rhaetian dark shales in a subrosion pipe (or sinkhole) penetrating middle Triassic (Muschelkalk) strata, and, outside the subrosion pipe, disconcordantly overlying middle Triassic strata, east of Winterswijk, the Netherlands, is described, discussed and assessed taxonomically. The material consists of nearly intact and articulated as well as wholly disintegrated ske...