Triassic tectonics of the Ailaoshan Belt (SW China): Early Triassic collision between the South China and Indochina Blocks, and Middle Triassic intracontinental shearing

A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implication for the Triassic biotic recovery

The presence of gigantic apex predators in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan oceans suggests that complex ecosystems in the sea had become re-established in these regions at least by the early Middle Triassic, after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). However, it is not clear whether oceanic ecosystem recovery from the PTME was globally synchronous because of the apparent la...

Tectonics of the Middle Triassic intracontinental Xuefengshan Belt, South China: new insights from structural and chronological constraints on the basal décollement zone

In orogenic belts, a basal décollement zone often develops at depth to accommodate the shortening due to folding and thrusting of the sedimentary cover. In the Early Mesozoic intracontinental Xuefengshan Belt of South China, such a décollement zone is exposed in the core of anticlines formed by the emplacement of the late-orogenic granitic plutons. The detailed, multi-scale structural analysis ...

The Permian–Triassic boundary crisis and Early Triassic biotic recovery

This issue of Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology is devoted to papers on the Permian– Triassic boundary crisis and Early Triassic biotic recovery. It is an outgrowth of the Symposium on Early Triassic Chronostratigraphy and Biotic Recovery that was held in Chaohu, China, on May 21st–23rd, 2005 under the auspices of IGCP Project 467 and attended by about 200 Earth scientists with a ...

The Triassic

The Triassic, lasting from 252 to 201 million years (Myr) ago, was crucial in the origin of modern ecosystems. It is the seventh of the 11 geological systems or periods into which the Phanerozoic, the fossiliferous last 540 million years, of Earth history is divided. It might seem strange to select just one of these divisions of time as somehow more significant than the others. However, this wa...

Conodonts from the Early Triassic microbialite of Guangxi (South China): implications for the definition of the base of the Triassic System