The Triassic Period saw the first appearance of numerous amniote lineages (e.g. Lepidosauria, Archosauria, Mammalia) that defined Mesozoic ecosystems following the end Permian Mass Extinction, as well as the first major morphological diversification of crown-group reptiles. Unfortunately, much of our understanding of this event comes from the record of large-bodied reptiles (total body length >...

To discern the effect of the end-Permian (P-Tr) ecological crisis on land, interactions between plants and their insect herbivores were examined for four time intervals containing ten major floras from the Dolomites of northeastern Italy during a Permian-Triassic interval. These floras are: (i) the Kungurian Tregiovo Flora; (ii) the Wuchiapingian Bletterbach Flora; (iii) three Anisian floras; a...

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...

Mesozoic marine reptiles and modern marine mammals are often considered ecological analogs, but the extent of their similarity is largely unknown. Particularly important is the presence/absence of deep-diving suction feeders among Mesozoic marine reptiles because this would indicate the establishment of mesopelagic cephalopod and fish communities in the Mesozoic. A recent study suggested that d...

This paper presents a new interpretation of the geometry of Triassic alignment of J. Sidi Mahdi –J. Zitoun in Medjerda Valley Plain (Northern Tunisia) based on detailed analysis of gravity and seismic reflection data. The main results of gravity analysis do not show a distinguish gravity anomaly over Triassic evaporites bodies. The positive gravity anomaly seems to be related to the entire stru...

Accelerated biotic turnover during the Late Triassic has led to the perception of an end-Triassic mass extinction event, now regarded as one of the ‘‘big five’’ extinctions. Close examination of the fossil record reveals that many groups thought to be affected severely by this event, such as ammonoids, bivalves and conodonts, instead were in decline throughout the Late Triassic, and that other ...

—Mesozoic marine ecosystems were dominated by several clades of reptiles, including sauropterygians, ichthyosaurs, crocodylomorphs, turtles, and mosasaurs, that repeatedly invaded ocean ecosystems. Previous research has shown that marine reptiles achieved great taxonomic diversity in the Middle Triassic, as they broadly diversified into many feeding modes in the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic ...

the study area is located in the northeast of iran. miankuhi formation is 500m thick and comprises homogeneous shales, brown granular sandstone and siltstone. in this study, 45 samples were taken from miankuhi shales and sandstones in order to determine their tectonic origin by using a polarizing microscope. samples were analysed by x-ray fluorescence (xrf) method to determine their chemical co...

The Chinle Formation of Arizona is a highly fossiliferous terrestrial unit from the Late Triassic Period. Fossil vertebrate collections from the Chinle Formation date back to the late 1890s and document a diverse fauna that is correlative with other Late Triassic faunas worldwide. No fewer than 18 holotype specimens including metoposaurids, phytosaurs, aetosaurs, crocodylomorphs, dinosauromorph...

Substantial advances by numerous researchers over the past 20 years have made it possible to develop a composite biochronological scheme for the Triassic based on the bivalves Claraia, Peribositria, Enteropleura, Daonella, Halobia, Eomonotis and Monotis. These bivalves exhibit temporal durations nearly equal to ammonoids and conodonts. Widely distributed across the Tethys, Panthalassa and Borea...