The Triassic Period
What do you already know about the Triassic Period?
The Triassic Period was 252 – 201 million years ago. It lasted for just over 51 million years! It was the beginning of the Mesozoic Era and when dinosaurs first started to appear on the planet.
Before this it had been the Palaeozoic Era. But something happened to kill almost all the creatures on Earth. Scientists aren’t totally sure what happened! But it meant that at the beginning of the Triassic Period there weren’t actually many creatures living on Earth at all.
At the beginning there weren’t any dinosaurs either! They only appeared about 240 million years ago and only in small numbers at first. The dinosaurs which lived then were manly very small dinosaurs, for example, Coelophysis. Towards the end there were some bigger dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus, which was about 7 metres long, and Riojasaurus, which grew to about 5 metres long. There were also some reptiles living then too, including those that swam in the sea and flew in the air. Reptiles that are incredibly similar to those on Earth now also lived during the Triassic Period, such as crocodiles and lizards.
The Triassic Period ended a bit like it started and lots of creatures became extinct. Not so many as before died, so lots survived too!
What the Earth looked like at the beginning and at the end of the Triassic Period, compared to the Earth today.
In the Mesozoic Era the Earth looked very different to what it does now. At the beginning of the Triassic Period the land wasn’t split up into continents but was one big block of land instead. It was called Pangaea. Pangaea began to break apart during the later Triassic Period, with two main landmasses forming. These were called Laurasia (North America, Europe and Asia now) and Gondwana (South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia now).
Although it was one block of land the weather and habitats were quite different across it. Generally during the Triassic Period it was quite hot and humid, a lot more than it is today, but especially in the middle of Pangaea. While it didn’t all look the same, at the beginning of the Triassic Period there wouldn’t have been many plants or trees and lots of it would have been covered in deserts. This changed throughout the period. By the end hugely tall conifer trees were common, for example pine and fir trees, and created massive forests for the dinosaurs to roam through. These were especially common near the coasts.
What we've learnt...
The Triassic Period was 252 – 201 million years ago. It lasted for just over 51 million years!
At the beginning of the Triassic Period there weren’t any dinosaurs!
At the end of the Triassic Period there were some dinosaurs living on Earth.
During the Triassic Period the Earth looked very different. There was one block of land called Pangaea.
At the beginning there weren’t many plants. Trees started to grow and huge parts of Pangaea were covered in them by the end of the Triassic Period.
Test your knowledge...
The Triassic Period Quiz
If you click the correct answer the box will turn green. If its the wrong answer it will turn red and then show you what the correct answer was. Make sure you read/listen to the questions carefully!
#1. Were there lots of dinosaurs in the Triassic Period?
#2. How long did the Triassic Period last for?
#3. Did reptiles live during the Triassic Period?
#4. Was the Triassic Period…
#5. What trees started to grow in the Triassic Period?
Results
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Coelophysids and Peteinosaurus by ABelov2014 – CC BY-SA 3.0
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