The area is thought to have been a river deposit during the Late
Triassic period.
5 Arran - Huge reptilian footprints from the
Triassic period have been found.
During 200 million years ago in the Upper
Triassic period of the now Petrified Forest, ran water, producing a chemical reaction facilitating the decay of logs and bones; that water, picked up also as sediment, traces of silicon, which combined with oxygen.
Plateosaurus Lived during the
Triassic period; it ate only plants.
As the show opens, a friendly palaeontologist tells us about plate tectonics and the differences in the Earth's atmosphere at the start of the
Triassic period.
These bones are from the Upper
Triassic period, and are approximately 200-210 million years old.
"Finds like this reinforce the importance of Petrified Forest in helping to drive global research on the Late
Triassic Period and the very origins of dinosaurs."
Edward Timothy (Tim) Tozer, who died in Vancouver, B.C., on 26 December 2010 at age 82, was a world authority on the paleontology and geology of the
Triassic Period (250-200 million years ago).
Dinosaurs first appeared around 230 million years ago during the
Triassic period, but they were not the giant creatures whose names are now familiar to us all.
He also added, "This type of bone structure is not thought at that time for the predatory dinosaurs." The oldest known dinosaurs lived 230 million years ago, in the
Triassic Period. After that, there is a big gap from fossil findings.
But the
Triassic period extended from 250 to 200 million years ago, followed by Jurassic, which spanned from 145 to 200 million years.
The first dinosaurs appeared in the
Triassic period almost 220 million years ago, developing through the Jurassic period 150 million years ago and into the Cretaceous period 127 million years ago.