Bizarre creatures in sight: In the November issue of Bild der Wissenschaft you will find out how evolution boomed again after the mass extinction 252 million years ago. The dinosaurs in particular experienced a triumphant advance in the Triassic period and produced some experimental species, but also extremely successful models.
The history of the development of life on our planet was turbulent: after phases of strong development, there were repeated, sometimes violent, collapses in which many species became extinct. The most famous of these is probably the catastrophic end of the age of dinosaurs caused by the asteroid impact around 66 million years ago. But much earlier – 252 million years ago – there was already a highly developed living environment that was almost completely destroyed in a global catastrophe.
In the first article of the four-part title topic “The World of the Dinosaurs”, BDW author Timm Schröder first examines what is known about the great mass extinction at the transition from the Permian to the Triassic period. It is therefore assumed that gigantic volcanic eruptions and a subsequent climate catastrophe have made the earth largely hostile to life. The result was the largest extinction of species in Earth’s history, because after the inferno there was hardly anything left of the once colorful living environment. But as the author reports, there is now increasing evidence that more species have survived than long thought. Apparently they were able to survive in a few “oases”. When conditions improved again in the Triassic period, they formed the basis for an evolutionary boom, according to the article “The Great Dying”.
Special exhibition “Triassic Life”
“The Triassic was an evolutionary experiment,” says paleontologist Stephan Spiekman from the Stuttgart Natural History Museum in an interview conducted by BDW editor Salome Berblinger. In addition to the causes of the intensive development of the living environment after the climate catastrophe, the focus is on a particularly bizarre Triassic creature that Spiekman and his colleagues recently scientifically described. The reptile Mirasaura grauvogeli therefore had a fan made of a previously unknown structure. A replica of this “miracle dinosaur” can be admired in the current special exhibition “Triassic Life” in the Stuttgart Natural History Museum. There, visitors will also encounter many other animals from the Triassic period.
The third part of the article is about a development in the Triassic period that was to have a lasting impact on life on Earth: The first representatives of the dinosaurs emerged after the mass extinction and already expanded considerably. Finds from Trossingen in Swabia bear witness to this, reports BDW author Klaus Jacob. In the article “The Afterlife,” he describes this special fossil deposit and the strange creatures that lived here around 210 million years ago.
The title topic is rounded off by an article that presents a special methodology for researching the career of dinosaurs in the Triassic period. BDW author Bettina Wurche reports how paleontologists in Poland use fossilized feces to gain insights into diet, lifestyle and the environment over 200 million years ago. This makes it possible to gain insights into the gradual but rapid evolution of dinosaurs in connection with ecological changes, according to the article “Fecal Forensics”.
You can read the articles on the cover topic “The World of Dinosaurs” online as part of a bdw+ subscription, or you can find them in the November issue of Bild der Wissenschaft, which will be available in stores from October 17th.