Lecture 8

Question 1

Triassic Earth

Answer 1

–paleogeography, climate,
vegetation, marine & terrestrial life.

Question 2

Earliest known dinosaur

Answer 2

Eoraptor

Question 3

Well-known latest Late Triassic dinos

Answer 3

Coelophysis
* Plateosaurus

Question 4

significantly less exposed on Earth’s
surface than Jurassic and Cretaceous strata.

Answer 4

Triassic strata

Question 5

The very oldest dinosaur fossils (~ 230 Ma) are found

Answer 5

in a very
arid region of Argentina called Valle de la Luna (“Valley of
the Moon”)

Question 6

‘Valley of the Moon’ during the Triassic was

Answer 6

a coastal area
along the western shoreline of the southern landmass of Pangea.

Question 7

The Triassic climate
is best described as

Answer 7

an
arid hothouse with
two seasons. (10 months of dry and 2 months of rain climate)

Question 8

Triassic trees and plants
include:

Answer 8

conifers
and Ginkgo
monkey-puzzle trees
horsetails(including giants)
ferns
cycads

(See slides 4 and 5 for images)

Question 9

Triassic Oceans

Answer 9

Sea life was abundant in shallow
marine waters, including
invertebrates and vertebrates. (see slide 6 for images)

Question 10

Triassic sea life

Answer 10

ammonoids
plesiosaurs
ichthyosaurs

Question 11

Triassic Terrestrial Life

Answer 11

• Postosuchus
  (“crocodile from the past”)
  members of
  pseudosuchia
  and were apex predators

Rhynchosaurs
(primitive archosaurs)

Therapsids

Mammals
(Late Triassic)

Question 12

Species are binomens

Answer 12

– including the generic name (Capitalized)
and the specific name (not capitalized). Both are written in italics.

(See slide 9 for in depth classification)

Question 13

Eoraptor lunensis (231-228 Ma) was
named & described by

Answer 13

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

Question 14

The best known latest
Late Triassic dinosaur
in North America is

Answer 14

Coelophysis “hollow
form”

pronounced see-low-fy-sis

(See Slide 12 for labeling)

Question 15

Oldest known theropod with a furcula

Answer 15

Coelophysis

Question 16

In 1947 an AMNH expedition
discovered hundreds of Coelophysis in
a massive bonebed at Ghost Ranch,
New Mexico. What caused this immediate burial

Answer 16

A flash flood of the pack/flock
that protected the carcasses from scavenging.

Question 17

Saurichia is divided
into 2 lineages:

Answer 17

theropoda
sauropodomorpha

Question 18

The less-derived
“prosauropods”

Answer 18

the basal sauropodomorpha

Question 19

Prosauropod fossils
range in age from

Answer 19

Late Triassic to
Early Jurassic. (see plant shredding teeth-slide 17)

Question 20

the best known prosauropod

Answer 20

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)