Page 12 - DINOSOUR ATLAS

dinosaur atlas
Triassic World The first flying pterosaurs appeared in the
, EudiMorPHodon

Late Triassic Period. They had leathery wings
supported by a greatly extended fourth finger
and long, bony tails. Early species were quite
The paleozoic era ended with a mass extinction that small, and Eudimorphodon was
seems to have wiped out 70 percent of life on Earth. just 28 in (70 cm) long.
It took the Triassic world about 10 million years to recover
from the catastrophe, and by that time the surviving
reptiles were evolving into new forms. They included
the therapsids, mammal-like reptiles that gave rise
to the first true mammals at the end of the Triassic.
They also included marine reptiles, such as the
nothosaurs and ichthyosaurs, the first of the flying
pterosaurs, and—appearing some 230 million
years ago—the earliest dinosaurs.

, PlaCErias
This powerful, tusked animal was
one of the larger mammal-like
reptiles. These ancestors of the
mammals disappeared at the
end of the Triassic Period.

triassiC GloBE .
During the Triassic, all the
continents were joined into a
single landmass called Pangaea.
The heartlands of this
supercontinent were so far
from the ocean that they
were parched deserts,
but nearer the fringes
there were lush,
swampy forests.
lariosaurus .
One of the aquatic nothosaurs,
Lariosaurus lived in shallow seas about
230 million years ago. It probably swam
somewhat like an otter, but far less efficiently.

, fErns
There were no flowering
plants in the Triassic and no
grasses. The undergrowth was
dominated by more primitive green
plants, such as ferns and horsetails,
which were eaten by herbivorous
animals like Placerias.

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