Triassic Era Research Paper

Life in the Triassic Period
Just about everyone has heard of the age of dinosaurs and the Jurassic period but not many people know of the time before when animals, dinosaurs, and plants were just starting to flourish. The time before dinosaurs and animals was called The Triassic period which was at the beginning of the Mesozoic era which was approximately 251 million years ago and went on for about 50 million years. The Triassic period has three sections within which are called Early Triassic 251 Ma, Middle Triassic 245 Ma and Late Triassic 228 Ma. Within these sections are the different stages of animals and plants evolving and growing.
The Early Triassic section started in 251 Ma and ended in 245 Ma. This is when the earth was recovering
from the Great Extinction when that wiped out 95 percent of all marine life and 70 percent of land life (National Geographic). Some people think that the Great Extinction was what wiped out all dinosaurs but it was the event that started the dinosaurs evolving into bigger and more pronounced creatures. At the start of Early Triassic, all of the continents were together as one which is what we call Pangea. The environment was warm and at the center of Pangea was a desert environment which caused life to move towards the sea area.
There were only two groups of land animals that survived the Permian Extinction one was the Therapsids which were mammal-like reptiles the other was more reptilian called Archosaurs.
In the Early Triassic, it is said that Therapsids would dominate the Early Triassic period. The Early Triassic Period had no dinosaurs and little animals besides the remaining two groups. A reptile called Lystrosaurus was another animal that was alive during the Early Triassic. The Lystrosaurus returned to the ocean and is said that they swam like modern eels. The Early Triassic section ended 245 Ma which led the animals to evolve more
prominently.
The sea life in the Early Triassic period had very little population because of the low sea levels and low amounts of oxygen. There were, however, some signs of life. Some coiled shelled ammonites, mollusks and sea urchins that survived the Permian extinction started to quickly diversify. The sea life in the early Triassic did not go through many changes until the mid and late Triassic period. The plants and insects of the early Triassic period also did not go through many extensive evolutionary changes. The dry climate and center of Pangea were mostly desert which is a reason why plants and insects did not really evolve.
In the Mid Triassic, the land had a great crack along the equator of Pangea which started to slowly drift apart. By the Mid Triassic, the Therapsids started to go extinct leaving the Archosaurs as the dominant species. By this time the Archosaurs had evolved into a true dinosaur it had two temporal openings in the skull and the teeth were firmly set in the jaw (National Geographic). Another kind of animal was evolving during this time period it was called the Coelophysis. A Coelophysis was small and had flexibility around the hip and had long slim neck, sharp teeth, sharp claws and a long tail. In New Mexico, it is said they found fossils of the Coelophysis in large numbers which indicated that they herded together (Hamilton).
Sea life in the middle Triassic was the mark of the return of better conditions for living. The mid-Triassic witnessed the beginnings of phytoplankton and the slow recovery of reefs. The increased ocean oxygen had positive effects for the ocean life. A new life was gaining speed in the ocean it is called calcareous sponges. These sea creatures formed small mounds and became an important element for reef communities later on (Enchanted Learning). Bilaterian animals recovered slowly and several other different crustaceans started to diversify. In the mid-Triassic, the appearance of Belemnites, as well as other Neocephalopods, started to grow slowly.
The plant life in the mid-Triassic began to recover this included larger plants such as Sphenopsids, ferns, moss, seed ferns, conifers, and cycads. In the early Triassic, there were few Dipteran insects. In the mid-Triassic, the divergence of the fruit fly and Mosquito started to grow. In higher altitudes, there began to spread Conifer forests in which other insects started to awaken like beetles, hemipterans and other insects that left burrows like cicadas. Some insects that survived the Permian extinction that started to show in the mid-Triassic period were spiders, scorpions, millipedes, and centipedes (Bagley 3). The Middle Triassic ended in 228 Ma leading to the Late Triassic section of the Triassic Period.
The Late Triassic section started in 228 Ma and is the time of the Triassic period that had the most animals, plants, insects, and dinosaurs evolving and spreading. In the late Triassic section dinosaurs evolved along with crocodilians, pterosaurs and other sea-reptiles and mammals. Two of the earliest dinosaurs discovered were the Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor which were bipedal hunters (Creative Commons). In the late Triassic, the Archosaurs had a third group which evolved into the first pterosaurs. There was the Sharovipteryx which was a glider only about the size of a modern crow with wing membranes attached to the long hind legs like bats. The Sharovipteryx was bipedal with tiny clawed front limbs to catch prey and glide from tree to tree. Along with the Sharovipteryx was another small winged animal about the size of a hummingbird. It is also said that during the late Triassic section mammals appeared and were very small creatures (Bagley 4). These creatures were either herbivores or insectivores. The sea life in the late Triassic had modern stony corals and reef-building activity in shallow waters near the coast of Pangea.
The sea life evolved to have more reefs and different types of sea creatures such as the marine reptile fauna, Shastasaurus, dolphin-like Parvipelvia and the hybodont sharks. The Shastasaurus were diverse and widespread and grew to be one of the largest reptiles of that time. There were freshwater faunas, and a diverse selection of fish, sharks, lungfish, amphibians and reptiles. The marine life in the late Triassic time period included crustaceans such as Acanthinopus, Antripos, Eryon, Knebelia, Galacia, Itasca and much more other types of sea creatures that were spread across the
earth. In the late Triassic period, Pangea had begun to split apart. The plants on Pangea had evolved and spread across Pangea. The Conifer dominated the northern continent, seed plants, and ferns, the southern continent was dominated by seed fern Dicroidium, and some other plants included Sanmiguelia, Wielandiella, and Peltasperms. The Leptocycas was a primitive seed plant and it was palm-like with tough leaves (Enchanted Learning). The late Triassic also had horsetails which were similar to cattails in the structure they were also an important source of nutrition for herbivores. In the forests moss, liverwort and ferns covered the ground. The insects had evolved from larva to adult and have evolved into different types a new type of insect that is in modern day are grasshoppers. Some other insects are the Friularachne Rigoi spider and the Titanoptera. The late Triassic period ended 200 Ma with the extinction of many new animals, plants and insects which leads to the next time period in the Mesozoic era.
In conclusion, the Triassic period had three different stages that each had its own climate changes, animal, plants and insect adaptations which evolved and grew. The stages of the Triassic period went from reptilian like creatures to bigger animals and small mammals. The scientists in these times will uncover more things about the mystery of the Triassic period and will continue to find more things of interest.

Works Cited
By Bagley, Mary, LiveScience Contributor | February 11, 2014 05:08pm ET http://www.livescience.com/43295-triassic-period.html
Enchanted Learning. http://www.EnchantedLearning.com 1996 Hamilton, Jason 2005-2010 Calvin & Rosanna Hamilton scienceviews.com/dinosaurs/triassic.html Creative Commons Attribution License 1998-203 palaeos.com/Mesozoic/triassic/triassic.htm
2015-2016 National Geographic Partners science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/triassic