Natural.World

• Palaeozoic era
  • - Silurian period
  • - Devonian period
  • - Carboniferous period
  • - Permian period
• Mesozoic era
  • - Triassic period
  • - Jurassic period
  • - Cretaceous period
• Cenozoic era
  • - Tertiary period
  • - Pleistocene epoch
  • - Holocene epoch

Triassic Period

The Triassic Period was the first period of the Mesozoic Era and occurred between 251 million and 199 million years ago. It followed the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period and was a time when life outside of the oceans began to diversify.

At the beginning of the Triassic, most of the continents were concentrated in the giant C-shaped supercontinent known as Pangaea. Climate was generally very dry over much of Pangaea with very hot summers and cold winters in the continental interior. A highly seasonal monsoon climate prevailed nearer to the coastal regions. Although the climate was more moderate farther from the equator, it was generally warmer than today with no polar ice caps. Late in the Triassic, seafloor spreading in the Tethys Sea led to rifting between the northern and southern portions of Pangaea, which began the separation of Pangaea into two continents, Laurasia and Gondwanan, which would be completed in the Jurassic Period.

Source: Live Science