Triassic tetrapods are of key importance in understanding their evolutionary history, because several tetrapod clades, including most of their modern lineages, first appeared or experienced their initial evolutionary radiation during this Period. In order to test previous palaeobiogeographical hypotheses of Triassic tetrapod faunas, tree reconciliation analyses (TRA) were performed with the aim...

Outcrops of the Lower Triassic (Spathian) Virgin Limestone Member (Moenkopi Formation) in the southwestern United States contain the oldest known metazoan bioherms formed in the aftermath of the endPermian mass extinction. These small buildups, up to 1.0 m in diameter and 0.2 m high, were constructed by cementing bivalves. The bivalve bioherms accreted in a shallow, subtidal environment above s...

We report a new ichthyopterygian assemblage from Lower Triassic horizons of the Prida Formation at Fossil Hill in central Nevada. Although fragmentary, the specimens collected so far document a diverse fauna. One partial jaw exhibits isodont dentition with blunt tipped, mesiodistally compressed crowns and striated enamel. These features are shared with the Early Triassic genus Utatsusaurus know...

Article history: Received 22 July 2016 Received in revised form 23 December 2016 Accepted 23 December 2016 Available online 05 January 2017 Paleomagnetic and cycle stratigraphic analyses of nearly 7000m of section from continuous cores in the Newark basin and an overlapping 2500meter-thick composite outcrop and core section in the nearby Hartford basin provide an astrochronostratigraphic polari...

Abstract Titanopterans are spectacular, giant, predatory insects mainly known from the Triassic, but they a few localities in Central Asia (including European Russia) and Australia. The Nampo Group is nonmarine sequence, located on southwestern Korean Peninsula, age of which has remained controversial, due to lack proper age-constraining fossils. Here, we report new titanopteran Magnatitan jong...

Coprolites are the least studied and most under-sampled vertebrate trace fossils. They are very common in some Triassic localities. We recognize six new coprolite ichnotaxa: Alococopros triassicus, A. indicus, Saurocopros bucklandi, Liassococopros hawkinsi, Malericopros matleyi and Falcatocopros oxfordensis. The distribution of coprolite ichnotaxa is: Permian Hyronocopros amphipolar and Heterop...

SYNOPSIS TheNorth American Triassic dinosaur record has been repeatedly cited as oneof themost complete early dinosaur assemblages. The discovery of Silesaurus from Poland and the recognition that Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor may not be theropods have forced a re-evaluation of saurischian and theropod synapomorphies. Here, we re-evaluate each purported Triassic dinosaur from North Americaonaspeci...

The current Triassic chronostratigraphic scale is a hierarchy of three series divided into seven stages, divided further into 15 substages. Ammonoid and conodont biostratigraphies provide the primary basis for chronostratigraphic definition based on global stratotype sections and points (GSSP). I propose that Triassic chronostratigraphic definition should rely entirely on ammonoid biochronologi...

Similarities in body plan evolution, such as wings in pterosaurs, birds, and bats or limblessness in snakes and amphisbaenians, can be recognized as classical examples of convergence among animals [1-3]. We introduce a new Triassic stem archosaur that is unexpectedly and remarkably convergent with the "dome-headed" pachycephalosaur dinosaurs that lived over 100 million years later. Surprisingly...

The Moenkopi Formation has yielded partial and isolated remains of important archosaurs including rauisuchian skull fragments and isolated poposaur centra and pelvic girdle elements. A recently discovered skeleton referable to Arizonasaurus babbitti shows that most of these archosaurian remains belong to one taxon. Characteristics of the skeleton of Arizonasaurus show that it belongs to a poorl...