Triassic Period
252-201 million years ago · Event
The Mesozoic opens on a wrecked planet: 90% of species are gone in the Great Dying, and all the land is fused into the single continent Pangaea — deserts at its heart, one ocean around it. In the recovery, the survivors' descendants radiate: the first dinosaurs (small, rare, two-legged), the first true mammals (smaller still), the first pterosaurs and the first crocodilians all appear before the period's fiery end.
On these timelines: The Age of Dinosaurs, Master
More from The Age of Dinosaurs
- Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction (66000000 BCE)
- Tyrannosaurus rex (68000000 BCE)
- Mesozoic Era (252000000 BCE)
- Paleozoic Era (541000000 BCE)
- Jurassic Period (201000000 BCE)
- Cretaceous Period (145000000 BCE)
- Archaeopteryx and the first birds (150000000 BCE)
- Permian Period (299000000 BCE)
Around 252000000 BCE
- Permian–Triassic extinction (252000000 BCE)
- First dinosaurs (230000000 BCE)
- First pterosaurs take flight (228000000 BCE)
- Therapsids, the proto-mammals (275000000 BCE)
- Archosaurs emerge (250000000 BCE)
- Lystrosaurus (252000000 BCE)