🌍 Dinosaurs, the majestic reptiles of the Mesozoic era, continue to captivate the imagination of scientists and prehistory enthusiasts around the world. Particularly fascinating is the Triassic era, when the first real dinosaurs appeared. The Triassic, dating from between 250 and 200 million years ago, marks the beginning of an era in which the diversity of life on Earth expanded dramatically following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. This environmental cataclysm, one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth's history, paved the way for the emergence of dinosaurs, which would become the dominant creatures on our planet. The Triassic is divided into three periods: the Early Triassic, the Middle Triassic, and the Late Triassic, each of which is characterized by a unique evolution of fauna and flora. It was during this period that the supercontinent Pangaea began to break up, leading to major climatic changes that influenced the evolution of the first dinosaurs. Climates ranging from dry and arid to temperate and humid in different parts of the continent allowed for a wide variety of adaptations and evolutions. Fossils discovered in the Triassic give us a fascinating insight into these early dinosaurs. Genera such as Herrerasaurus and Coelophysis show agile, bipedal creatures, which contrast with the gigantic sauropodomorphs such as Plateosaurus, whose size and build suggest a primarily herbivorous diet. These discoveries are crucial to understanding how dinosaurs managed to become the dominant land animals during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods following the Triassic. Studying the Triassic is essential not only to understanding the origin and evolution of dinosaurs, but also to understanding the ecological and climatic dynamics that shaped life on Earth at that time. 🔥 As a reminder, videos are posted on SUNDAYS at 9pm. ------------------------- 💥 The Triassic and the dinosaurs: So here we are 250 million years ago. The Permian is closing its doors while the Triassic is opening wide. The extinction has left deep scars all over the Earth's surface, especially in the vast ocean that covers most of the globe. Neither Pangaea nor Panthalassa were spared the multiple upheavals that marked the Late Permian. Life seems to have stopped there. However, after a few million years, with the help of the plant cover, animals repopulated the Earth. First of all, the few survivors of the great extinction had free rein to conquer larger territories on this vast land, which seemed practically devoid of ecosystems. They settle in new ecological niches that are left free after the disappearance of previous living beings. This gives them the opportunity to diversify at will and rebuild the living world. To rebuild, but also to renew and diversify. In fact, the surviving species are by no means the only ones populating the Earth. New species enrich the various ecosystems. This is what is known as radiation or speciation. Species will evolve to adapt to their new environment and fill the places left vacant since the chaos of the Permian. But before we get to know these species, and I can imagine your curiosity and impatience, we need to know what we're getting into. Before we talk about the characters in our Triassic play, we need to know the context in which they evolve if we want to understand everything that is at stake. What is the Earth like at this moment in our history? What is the climate like? ------------------------- 🎬 Today's program: 00:00 - Introduction 01:50 - 02:15 -