Middle Triassic

What Was the Middle Triassic?

The Middle Triassic was a time long, long ago. It was the second part of something called the Triassic period. It started about 246.7 million years ago and ended about 237 million years ago. Before this was the Early Triassic, and after it was the Late Triassic.

What Happened Then?

During the Middle Triassic, many things changed on Earth. Scientists split this time into two parts: the Anisian and Ladinian ages. They look at rocks and fossils to learn about life from millions of years ago. In places like western Europe, rocks from this time are called Muschelkalk. In Australia, near Sydney, there are special rocks like the Ashfield Shale and Bringelly Shale that have fossils in them.

Life in the Middle Triassic

After a big change that made many plants and animals disappear, life started to grow again. Many sea animals like ichthyosaurs, sauropterygians, and ray-finned fish began to appear. Small creatures without backbones, such as molluscs, also lived in the oceans. On land, there were no flowering plants yet. Instead, plants like seed ferns and gymnosperms grew. The very first tiny dinosaur-like animals also started to show up.

One fun sea animal from this time was the Mixosaurus cornalianus. It swam in the oceans many millions of years ago.