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Description
At the very end of the Triassic period, 201 million years ago in what is now the western part of the USA, the breakout of a large wildfire causes destruction to the area and sends the local wildlife into panic. Further back there is even lava erupting out of a massive fissure in the ground, and ash has almost entirely blocked out the sky. As the massive supercontinent Pangea starts to break up and crack apart right across the center where the Atlantic Ocean will one day be, it triggers large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across the globe, and also leads to many more disasters like floods, landslides and wildfires like this one. The oceans also become much more acidic and inhospitable after absorbing carbon and sulphur dioxide, large-scale climate change happens from the abundant substances released in eruptions and so on. With all this happening, many species are starting to die out in a rather short time frame, and leading to the end-Triassic mass extinction event.

The fire here has already claimed victims, including a Redondasuchus reseri, a large aetosaur (a herbivorous distant relative of crocodilians) covered in spines and hard armored suites on its back for defence. But they couldn't protect the animal from smoke inhalation and it has died and fallen onto its side. On the ground is the skull of a Postosuchus kirkpatricki, a 5-meter long rauisuchid, a terrestrial distant relative of crocodiles that was the top predator here, but this one died some time ago and its bones are burning now. A small dinosaur, Daemonosaurus chauliodus, has managed to still stay alive and now runs in search of an escape from the blaze. Some creatures have the luxury of flight to escape the fire easier, like the pterosaur Caelestiventus hanseni. In fact they would even sorta benefit as they catch small animals like insects fleeing the flames, and one has landed on the Redondasuchus carcass for a quick bite.

A final drawing for Triassic Week (youtu.be/9fUeaxzXr-E ), and I felt I should end it with what's at the very end of the Triassic period. The Triassic ended with a mass extinction event that devastated biodiversity, possibly having killed off 42% of all terrestrial tetrapods and maybe 24% of all marine genera alive at the time. The exact cause of this is still debated upon, but one likely explanation would be the breakup of Pangaea, the "supercontinent" present at the time that broke up over millions of years into the seven continents we now recognize. As North America and Africa ripped apart from each other it would have triggered widespread earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the latter releasing lots of greenhouse gases and aerosols that could have caused major climate change. Other disasters like flooding and fires can also be triggered, and the oceans would absorb lots of substances from eruptions that would make it more acidic and make the oceans less habitable for many creatures, especially shellfish and coral. And acid rain probably didn't help either. There is actually some debate over whether the extinction event at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary should be listed as a mass extinction, with some arguing that the extinctions of species at this time was spread out over several million years actually, or that lower speciation is the cause of a less diverse fossil record after the event, but personally I say "fuck that" and damn that should still be classified as a mass extinction. You've lost most archosaur lineages, all conodonts, hell only one ammonite genus is known to have survived past the Triassic and every Jurassic/ Cretaceous ammonite is descended from that one survivor (Psiloceras) in case you were wondering, I'd say there's a mass extinction here.

Anyways about the animals here, I'm not too sure if all were present at the very end of the Triassic. You see the fossil record of the Rhaetian stage, the last stage of the Triassic, kinda fucking sucks. In fact this along with how the fossil record of the very start of the Jurassic also sucks is part of why there is debate over whether the end-Triassic extinction is a mass extinction, but I just drew some fauna known to possibly have fossil records from the Rhaetian in here.

Anyways here's some info on the creatures. Redondasuchus is a 2.5-meter long aetosaur found in the latest Triassic of New Mexico. The aetosaurs were an order of herbivorous armored reptiles distantly related to crocodiles that lived only during the Triassic period, and they had bodies protected by plate-like scutes on their backs, some even having large shoulder spines for defence. Basically it's a cric that's gone through convergent evolution to look like the ankylosaur dinosaurs of the Cretaceous. There's some debate over whether Redondasuchus is a valid genus though, some suggest it is actually synonymous with Typothorax, another aetosaur. The aetosaurs were one of the animal lineages that did not survive the end-Triassic extinction and their niche as large herbivores would be replaced by herbivorous dinosaurs in the Jurassic period.

Daemonosaurus is a 2-meter long theropod dinosaur found in the Chinle Formation of New Mexico that lived in the Rhaetian stage if the late Triassic. Unique among Triassic theropods, it has a short, rounded snout rather than a long one. The teeth are also rather long and large in proportion to the skull and give the animal a bit of a "buck-toothed" appearance, though there is debate over whether the animal looked like this in life or if the teeth slipped out of their sockets a little after the dinosaur died. Daemonosaurus would have been a carnivore that hunted small animals like reptiles and insects, and while this genus is not known to have lived past the Triassic, dinosaurs as a whole survived the mass extinction and would go on to fill up most land-based ecological niches in the Jurassic and Cretaceous that were left empty as many other large land animals died out.

Caelestiventus is a member of the Dimorphodontidae family of pterosaurs, and with a wingspan of over 1.5 meters it was one of the largest Triassic pterosaurs, and that estimate comes from the only known specimen which wasn't even fully grown. Known from a partial skull found in the Nugget Sandstone of Utah, this animal was clearly carnivorous judging from those teeth and possibly lived in a desert or similar habitat where it preyed on smaller animals and scavenged carrion. While pterosaurs are most notable for their flight, it seems the Dimorphodontidae was quite adept for walking on the ground and even climbing trees, and chances are they only flew when they really needed to like when pursued by predators, and this family may be tied with the azhdarchids as the most terrestrial of pterosaurs. The pterosaurs survived past the Triassic extinction and greatly dominated the skies in the Mesozoic era, as no other aerial vertebrates existed until birds evolved in the late Jurassic.

The Postosuchus here is dead and just a skull and I don't really bother to talk about it and I've spoken about this creature before so I'll just leave this link if you wanna read facts I typed about it: www.deviantart.com/olmagon/art… .

Description
At the very end of the Triassic period, 201 million years ago in what is now the western part of the USA, the breakout of a large wildfire causes destruction to the area and sends the local wildlife into panic. Further back there is even lava erupting out of a massive fissure in the ground, and ash has almost entirely blocked out the sky. As the massive supercontinent Pangea starts to break up and crack apart right across the center where the Atlantic Ocean will one day be, it triggers large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across the globe, and also leads to many more disasters like floods, landslides and wildfires like this one. The oceans also become much more acidic and inhospitable after absorbing carbon and sulphur dioxide, large-scale climate change happens from the abundant substances released in eruptions and so on. With all this happening, many species are starting to die out in a rather short time frame, and leading to the end-Triassic mass extinction event.

The fire here has already claimed victims, including a Redondasuchus reseri, a large aetosaur (a herbivorous distant relative of crocodilians) covered in spines and hard armored suites on its back for defence. But they couldn't protect the animal from smoke inhalation and it has died and fallen onto its side. On the ground is the skull of a Postosuchus kirkpatricki, a 5-meter long rauisuchid, a terrestrial distant relative of crocodiles that was the top predator here, but this one died some time ago and its bones are burning now. A small dinosaur, Daemonosaurus chauliodus, has managed to still stay alive and now runs in search of an escape from the blaze. Some creatures have the luxury of flight to escape the fire easier, like the pterosaur Caelestiventus hanseni. In fact they would even sorta benefit as they catch small animals like insects fleeing the flames, and one has landed on the Redondasuchus carcass for a quick bite.

A final drawing for Triassic Week (youtu.be/9fUeaxzXr-E ), and I felt I should end it with what's at the very end of the Triassic period. The Triassic ended with a mass extinction event that devastated biodiversity, possibly having killed off 42% of all terrestrial tetrapods and maybe 24% of all marine genera alive at the time. The exact cause of this is still debated upon, but one likely explanation would be the breakup of Pangaea, the "supercontinent" present at the time that broke up over millions of years into the seven continents we now recognize. As North America and Africa ripped apart from each other it would have triggered widespread earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the latter releasing lots of greenhouse gases and aerosols that could have caused major climate change. Other disasters like flooding and fires can also be triggered, and the oceans would absorb lots of substances from eruptions that would make it more acidic and make the oceans less habitable for many creatures, especially shellfish and coral. And acid rain probably didn't help either. There is actually some debate over whether the extinction event at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary should be listed as a mass extinction, with some arguing that the extinctions of species at this time was spread out over several million years actually, or that lower speciation is the cause of a less diverse fossil record after the event, but personally I say "fuck that" and damn that should still be classified as a mass extinction. You've lost most archosaur lineages, all conodonts, hell only one ammonite genus is known to have survived past the Triassic and every Jurassic/ Cretaceous ammonite is descended from that one survivor (Psiloceras) in case you were wondering, I'd say there's a mass extinction here.

Anyways about the animals here, I'm not too sure if all were present at the very end of the Triassic. You see the fossil record of the Rhaetian stage, the last stage of the Triassic, kinda fucking sucks. In fact this along with how the fossil record of the very start of the Jurassic also sucks is part of why there is debate over whether the end-Triassic extinction is a mass extinction, but I just drew some fauna known to possibly have fossil records from the Rhaetian in here.

Anyways here's some info on the creatures. Redondasuchus is a 2.5-meter long aetosaur found in the latest Triassic of New Mexico. The aetosaurs were an order of herbivorous armored reptiles distantly related to crocodiles that lived only during the Triassic period, and they had bodies protected by plate-like scutes on their backs, some even having large shoulder spines for defence. Basically it's a cric that's gone through convergent evolution to look like the ankylosaur dinosaurs of the Cretaceous. There's some debate over whether Redondasuchus is a valid genus though, some suggest it is actually synonymous with Typothorax, another aetosaur. The aetosaurs were one of the animal lineages that did not survive the end-Triassic extinction and their niche as large herbivores would be replaced by herbivorous dinosaurs in the Jurassic period.

Daemonosaurus is a 2-meter long theropod dinosaur found in the Chinle Formation of New Mexico that lived in the Rhaetian stage if the late Triassic. Unique among Triassic theropods, it has a short, rounded snout rather than a long one. The teeth are also rather long and large in proportion to the skull and give the animal a bit of a "buck-toothed" appearance, though there is debate over whether the animal looked like this in life or if the teeth slipped out of their sockets a little after the dinosaur died. Daemonosaurus would have been a carnivore that hunted small animals like reptiles and insects, and while this genus is not known to have lived past the Triassic, dinosaurs as a whole survived the mass extinction and would go on to fill up most land-based ecological niches in the Jurassic and Cretaceous that were left empty as many other large land animals died out.

Caelestiventus is a member of the Dimorphodontidae family of pterosaurs, and with a wingspan of over 1.5 meters it was one of the largest Triassic pterosaurs, and that estimate comes from the only known specimen which wasn't even fully grown. Known from a partial skull found in the Nugget Sandstone of Utah, this animal was clearly carnivorous judging from those teeth and possibly lived in a desert or similar habitat where it preyed on smaller animals and scavenged carrion. While pterosaurs are most notable for their flight, it seems the Dimorphodontidae was quite adept for walking on the ground and even climbing trees, and chances are they only flew when they really needed to like when pursued by predators, and this family may be tied with the azhdarchids as the most terrestrial of pterosaurs. The pterosaurs survived past the Triassic extinction and greatly dominated the skies in the Mesozoic era, as no other aerial vertebrates existed until birds evolved in the late Jurassic.

The Postosuchus here is dead and just a skull and I don't really bother to talk about it and I've spoken about this creature before so I'll just leave this link if you wanna read facts I typed about it: www.deviantart.com/olmagon/art… .