Lecture 8 Flashcards
Triassic Earth
–paleogeography, climate,
vegetation, marine & terrestrial life.
Earliest known dinosaur
Eoraptor
Well-known latest Late Triassic dinos
Coelophysis
* Plateosaurus
significantly less exposed on Earth’s
surface than Jurassic and Cretaceous strata.
Triassic strata
The very oldest dinosaur fossils (~ 230 Ma) are found
in a very
arid region of Argentina called Valle de la Luna (“Valley of
the Moon”)
‘Valley of the Moon’ during the Triassic was
a coastal area
along the western shoreline of the southern landmass of Pangea.
The Triassic climate
is best described as
an
arid hothouse with
two seasons. (10 months of dry and 2 months of rain climate)
Triassic trees and plants
include:
conifers
and Ginkgo
monkey-puzzle trees
horsetails(including giants)
ferns
cycads
(See slides 4 and 5 for images)
Triassic Oceans
Sea life was abundant in shallow
marine waters, including
invertebrates and vertebrates. (see slide 6 for images)
Triassic sea life
ammonoids
plesiosaurs
ichthyosaurs
Triassic Terrestrial Life
- Postosuchus
(“crocodile from the past”)
members of
pseudosuchia
and were apex predators
Rhynchosaurs
(primitive archosaurs)
Therapsids
Mammals
(Late Triassic)
Species are binomens
– including the generic name (Capitalized)
and the specific name (not capitalized). Both are written in italics.
(See slide 9 for in depth classification)
Eoraptor lunensis (231-228 Ma) was
named & described by
University of
Chicago
paleontologist
Paul Sereno
Eos: meaning the beginning/ dawn of
Raptor: Meaning theif/plunderer
Luna: Moon
ensis: inhabitant
holotype: the first discovered of the species and used to name the dinosaur
The best known latest
Late Triassic dinosaur
in North America is
Coelophysis “hollow
form”
pronounced see-low-fy-sis
(See Slide 12 for labeling)
Oldest known theropod with a furcula
Coelophysis
In 1947 an AMNH expedition
discovered hundreds of Coelophysis in
a massive bonebed at Ghost Ranch,
New Mexico. What caused this immediate burial
A flash flood of the pack/flock
that protected the carcasses from scavenging.
Saurichia is divided
into 2 lineages:
theropoda
sauropodomorpha
The less-derived
“prosauropods”
the basal sauropodomorpha
Prosauropod fossils
range in age from
Late Triassic to
Early Jurassic. (see plant shredding teeth-slide 17)
the best known prosauropod
Plateosaurus (214-204 Ma)
It lived in Europe during the Late Triassic and is known from over 100 skeletons, many are complete or nearly so from being stuck in mud
(see slide 18 and 19)
