The Triassic is a geologic period of the Mesozoic Era spanning approximately 252 to 201 million years ago, immediately following the Permian–Triassic mass extinction and preceding the Jurassic. It is subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late Triassic epochs, characterized by the breakup initiation of the supercontinent Pangea, widespread arid continental climates, and the recovery and diversification of life. The Triassic marks the early radiation of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles, as well as the emergence of modern-style coral reefs and key evolutionary lineages among ammonoids and early mammals, setting the biotic framework for subsequent Mesozoic ecosystems.
About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period, a large proportion of species on Earth rapidly became extinct. After this mass extinction, many groups of organisms began to recover, while reptiles known as ...
A new review led by professor Emese Bordy at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Geological Sciences brings together more than two decades of research on the Karoo Supergroup, revealing how scientific understanding ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 17, 2026
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Some cynodonts may have been giving birth to live young much sooner in evolutionary history than previously assumed. A new Frontiers in Mammal Science study has offered the first compelling evidence that cynodonts may have ...
Evolution
Aug 13, 2026
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Nearly 80 years ago, a British expedition discovered the battered remains of a giant fossil on the peak of an Arctic island. Unable to take it with them, they snapped some pictures, took some bones and left the fossil to ...
Dinosaurs are famous for being big, from the towering Tyrannosaurus rex to the colossal Apatosaurus. But a new study published today in the journal Evolution by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Princeton ...
Evolution
Aug 5, 2026
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Scientists from China, Europe and the U.S., including Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim, have described a fossil of the long-necked marine ...
Evolution
Jul 29, 2026
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A newly discovered dinosaur from Zimbabwe is offering fresh clues to how the animals diversified, suggesting they spread across distinct ecosystems in southern Africa, scientists said Wednesday.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 29, 2026
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Volunteers armed with chisels, brushes and protective goggles chip away at rock encasing the bones of a massive prehistoric amphibian in a glass-walled laboratory on the ground floor of Warsaw's Copernicus Science Centre.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 22, 2026
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The end-Triassic mass extinction, 201 million years ago, is linked to volcanism that resulted from the break-up of Pangea and which pumped out vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing extreme global warming of 5 to ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 21, 2026
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Long before dinosaurs ruled the continents and modern crocodiles first appeared, their ancestors were already going through a decisive phase in their evolutionary history. It was in this ancient world, shortly after the greatest ...
Evolution
Jul 17, 2026
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