Evidence from sedimentation rates and stratigraphic ranges of palynomorph species indicate that van Veen is incorrect in inferring a condensed section at the Triassic/Jurassic (TR / J ) boundary in the Newark Supergroup. Van Veen bases his argument entirely on the ranges of palynomorph species in western Europe, but correlation of the European sections is equivocal, and the range data employed ...

Adaptive radiations are central to macroevolutionary theory. Whether triggered by acquisition of new traits or ecological opportunities arising from mass extinctions, it is debated whether adaptive radiations are marked by initial expansion of taxic diversity or of morphological disparity (the range of anatomical form). If a group rediversifies following a mass extinction, it is said to have pa...

The biotic recovery from Earth's most severe extinction event at the Permian-Triassic boundary largely reestablished the preextinction structure of marine trophic networks, with marine reptiles assuming the predator roles. However, the highest trophic level of today's marine ecosystems, i.e., macropredatory tetrapods that forage on prey of similar size to their own, was thus far lacking in the ...

The end-Triassic mass extinction event (∼201.4 million years ago) caused major faunal and floral turnovers in both the marine and terrestrial realms. The biotic changes have been attributed to extreme greenhouse warming across the Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) boundary caused by massive release of carbon dioxide and/or methane related to extensive volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (...

Abstract. Permian–Triassic boundary sections at Baghuk Mountain (Central Iran) are investigated with respect to their lithological succession, biostratigraphy (particularly conodonts, nautiloids and ammonoids) as well chemostratigraphy (carbon isotopes). The rock successions consist of the Late Permian Hambast Formation, youngest Member (new name for “Boundary Clay”) Early Triassic Claraia beds...

Cycle stratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic analyses of a -5000-m-thick composite section obtained by scientific oring in the Newark rift basin of eastern North America provide a high-resolution astronomically calibrated geomagnetic polarity timescale (GPTS) spanning over 30 m.y. of the Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic. Only normal polarity is found in -1000 m of interbedded volcanics and c...

Pseudosuchia, one of the two main clades of Archosauria (Reptilia: Diapsida), suffered a major decline in lineage diversity during the Triassic-Jurassic (TJ) mass extinction (approx. 201 Ma). Crocodylomorpha, including living crocodilians and their extinct relatives, is the only group of pseudosuchians that survived into the Jurassic. We reassess changes in pseudosuchian morphological diversity...

Coalsack Bluff was the first discovery site in Antarctica for the latest Permian to earliest Triassic reptile Lystrosaurus. This together with discovery of Permian Glossopteris leaves during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, indicated not only that Antarctica was part of Gondwanaland, but also that Antarctic rocks recorded faunas from the greatest of all mass extinctions at the Permian–T...