DID YOU KNOW?
Mary Anning was the first
person to find an Ichthyosaurus
fossil – see more on page 30!History
TRIASSIC
PERIOD
Dinosaurs lived in three distinct
periods. Triassic was the first one
TRIASSIC FAST FACTS:
- At the start of this period, all the Earth’s land masses were
joined into a ‘supercontinent’ known as Pangaea. By the
end of it, this land mass had split into two – Gondwana
(South) and Laurasia (North). - The massive sea surrounding Pangaea was
called Panthalassa. - The Triassic was named by German geologist Friedrich von
Alberti in 1834. He came up with the name based on three
distinct layers of rock that were found during that period. - During the extinction event at the end of the Triassic
period, all marine life – aside from ichthyosaurs and
plesiosaurs – perished. - The end of the Triassic period was the start of a new
geological time – the Jurassic period – which you can learn
more about in our next issue!
PLATEOSAURUS
(plat-ee-oh-sore-us)
His name means ‘broad lizard’ and he was a
large (4,000kg!) herbivore that was
found around France, Switzerland
and Germany. At 7m long, he
was big for his time – around
the length of two cars. Fossil
discoveries show that he may
have lived in herds.ICHTHYOSAURUS
(ik-thee-uh-saw-ruhs)
These giant marine creatures looked a lot like dolphins
(except for the scary teeth). Some grew massive – up to
26m long in later periods – but they started out smaller
and more lizard-like, swimming using their whole bodies- kind of like eels. They breathed air, birthed live young
and ended up dominating the oceans due to their sheer
size (15m long and weighing 27 tonnes!).
COELOPHYSIS
(seel-oh-fie-sis)
This carnivore most likely ate small reptiles and
walked upright. He had hollow bones
(hence his name, which means ‘hollow
form’), so he was probably pretty
fast, and was around 2m long.
He lived right here in
what is now South
Africa – as well as
Zimbabwe and
the USA.PTEROSAUR
(teh-ruh-saw)
This group included the flying
Sharovipteryx, which was
bird-sized and had
membranes attached to his
long back legs. He would glide
from tree to tree, catching prey
using his clawed front limbs.
The smaller Icarosaurus was
the size of a hummingbird
and his ‘wings’ were made
of really long rib bones,
covered with skin. These
creatures evolved and lived
past the major extinction.