Early Triassic

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Early/Lower Triassic
251.9 – 247.2 Ma
Epoch
Stratigraphic unitSeries
Time span formalityFormal
Lower boundary definitionFAD of the Conodont Hindeodus parvus
Lower boundary GSSPMeishan, Zhejiang, China
31°04′47″N 119°42′21″E / 31.0798°N 119.7058°E / 31.0798; 119.7058
Lower GSSP ratified2001[6]
Upper boundary definitionNot formally defined
Upper boundary definition candidates
Upper boundary GSSP candidate section(s)

The Early Triassic is the first of three

Spathian subages.[7]

The Lower Triassic series is coeval with the Scythian Stage, which is today not included in the official timescales but can be found in older literature. In Europe, most of the Lower Triassic is composed of Buntsandstein, a lithostratigraphic unit of continental red beds.[citation needed]

The Early Triassic and partly also the

Smithian-Spathian boundary event, occurred during the Olenekian.[11] A third extinction event occurred at the Olenekian-Anisian boundary, marking the end of the Early Triassic epoch.[12]

Early Triassic climate

The Putorana Plateau is composed of basalt rocks of the Siberian Traps.

The climate during the Early Triassic Epoch (especially in the interior of the supercontinent

ammonoids.[13] The extremely hot ocean temperatures facilitated extremely powerful hurricanes that frequently hit the coast of North China.[14]

The mostly hot climate of the Early Triassic may have been caused by late volcanic eruptions of the

Permian-Triassic extinction event.[20][21][22] On the other hand, an alternative hypothesis proposes these Early Triassic climatic perturbations and biotic upheavals that inhibited the recovery of life following the P-T mass extinction to have been linked to forcing driven by changes in the Earth's obliquity defined by a roughly 32.8 thousand year periodicity with strong 1.2 million year modulations. According to proponents of this hypothesis, radiometric dating indicates that major activity from the Siberian Traps ended very shortly after the end-Permian extinction and did not span the entire Early Triassic epoch, thus not being the primary culprit for the climatic changes throughout this epoch.[23]

Early Triassic life

Fauna and flora

Pleuromeia represented a dominant element of global floras during the Early Triassic

The Triassic Period opened in the aftermath of the

Era
) caused extreme hardships for the surviving species.

The Early Triassic Epoch saw the biotic recovery of life after the biggest mass extinction event of the past, which took millions of years due to the severity of the event and the harsh Early Triassic climate.

Spathian aged Paris biota.[32]

Terrestrial biota

The most common land vertebrate was the small

dinosauromorphs are known from the Olenekian.[35] The Early Triassic entomofauna is very poorly understood because of the paucity of insect fossils from this epoch.[36]

The

Spathian subage, the flora changed back to gymnosperm and pteridophyte dominated.[37] These shifts reflect global changes in precipitation and temperature.[25][20] Floral diversity was overall very low during the Early Triassic, as plant life had yet to fully recover from the Permian-Triassic extinction.[38]

Microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS) are common in the fossil record of North China in the immediate aftermath of the Permian-Triassic extinction, indicating that

microbial mats dominated local terrestrial ecosystems following the Permian-Triassic boundary. The regional prevalence of MISS is attributable to a decrease in bioturbation and grazing pressure as a result of aridification and temperature increase.[39] MISS have also been reported from Early Triassic fossil deposits in Arctic Canada.[40] The disappearance of MISS later in the Early Triassic has been interpreted as a signal of increased bioturbation and recovery of terrestrial ecosystems.[39]

Aquatic biota

In the oceans, the most common Early Triassic hard-shelled marine invertebrates were

Ammonoids show blooms followed by extinctions during the Early Triassic.[45]

Aquatic vertebrates diversified after the extinction:

Fossil gallery

See also

References

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  38. S2CID 251031028. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link
    )
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Further reading

External links