What comes to your mind when you think of the Triassic?

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Trilobites

I'm not a prehistory buff.

Thank you

A three-legged dinosaur. No, that would be Triosaurus, I should, as a Fluffysaurus, have known better.
Why Tri, in what way is it three or third?

most geologic epochs are named after a place were the rock strata of that epoch was first found, or is often found exposed. The Jurassic is named after the Jura Mountains in part of the Alps in Switzerland/France. And the Cambrian is named after a part of Wales called Cambria.

I assumed that the Triassic must also be named after some place.

But the Triassic does seem to derive its name from the word "three". The Triassic is subdivided into three eras. Apparently geologists always seemed to think the strata was three parted for some reason and so named it "three parted". That vague explanation is about all I can glean from the web at the moment.

But the Triassic was the hey day of the thecodonts: or "mammal like reptiles". Often quite large these mammal like reptiles ruled the land (though large reptiles related to dinosaurs existed then as well).

Large reptilian-like mammals who thought they ruled the earth, ancestors, clearly.

They went extinct right before the Triassic, in the P-Tr extinction.

Early dinosaurs.

The Triassic was the first of the 3 periods of the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Dinosaurs.

Most of the best known or favorite ones, and the prominent ones in the Jurassic Park movies, were from the last of those 3 periods, the Cretaceous Period.

I couldn't even name a dinosaur from the Triassic, though I'm sure that I've heard of some of them. I just don't know which ones they'd be.

The 3 Mesozoic periods are: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.

The Cretaceous was named after chalk, if I remember correctly. The Jurassic was named after the Jura Mountains. I don't know what the Triassic was named after. I couldn't find an answer to that.

Given the special prominence of Cretaceous dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (Such as Tyranosaur & Velociraptor, shouldn't the movie have been called Cretaceous park?

The movie exaggerated the size of Spinosaurus (the only aquatic dinosaur) and Mosasaur (an aquatic reptile related to the modern Monitor Lizard). From what I found on the web, neither was significantly (if at all) bigger than Tyranosaur. There were a few Tyranosaur-llke dinosaurs (relatively recently discovered) that were a little bigger than Tyranosaur.

Michael829

The archosaur Postosuchus

Dinosaurs

Basically. The Triassic was originally "Trias" meaning three for a distinctive sequence of three rock units found in Germany deposited in the Triassic Period. Red beds capped by limestone capped by terrestrial deposits.

Doesn't mean it's not what come to my mind when I think of Triassic but thanks for the info

Just read the thread from the beginning so understand you thanks , we is both ignorants