The Triassic Period

The History and Legacy of the Geologic Era that Witnessed the Rise of Dinosaurs

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Gregory T Luzitano

Scientists have long attempted to understand Earth’s past, and in service to that effort, they have divided the world’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. For example, the current eon is called the Phanerozoic, which means “visible life”. This is the eon in which multi-cellular life has evolved and thrived. Before this, life was microscopic (single cell).

The Phanerozoic eon is divided into 3 eras - Paleozoic (“old life”), Mesozoic (“middle life”) and Cenozoic (“new life”). From there, the Mesozoic era is divided into 3 periods - Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Before the Triassic, primitive life had built up in the oceans and seas, and some lifeforms finally had crawled onto land during the Paleozoic era. With that, life had become well established, but then came the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the worst extinction event in the history of the planet. At the end of the Triassic, another extinction event cleared the way for dinosaurs to become the dominant set of species in the Jurassic.

Though the Triassic does not have as interesting a list of creatures as those in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, such as Tyranosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyls, Brontosaurus, and the like, the life which reclaimed the Earth and then thrived during this period was no less important. Life during the Triassic spent nearly 60 percent of its time recovering from the Permian-Triassic extinction event, roughly 30 million years. What had been built up was then slammed by nature, effectively clearing the board once more for new species to take over.

The Triassic Period: The History and Legacy of the Geologic Era that Witnessed the Rise of Dinosaurs looks at the development of the era, the extinction events that preceded it, and how dinosaurs began to evolve in the Late Triassic. You will learn about the Triassic Period like never before.

©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors

Dry but detailed synopsis

Right before the Triassic period, which introduced the earliest dinosaurs, was the Permian period, where the first reptiles and synapsids, (mammal-like ancestors) began, and where mammal ancestors were the largest, dominant life form. The Permian ended in the greatest mass extinction of all time, with the loss of 90% of all ocean life and 70% of all land life, including plants. Only one species of synapsid survived, from which all mammals descended millions of years later. Meanwhile, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods followed, with dinosaurs replacing the synapsids as the dominant life form, until they in turn went extinct in the great meteor strike 66 million years ago.

This overview of the Triassic Period focuses largely on the Permian mass extinction that marks the boundary between Permian and Triassic, and the geologic and tectonic changes that led to the eventual break-up of Pangaea into our current continents. I was a little disappointed, as I was most interested in the evolution of animal life during this period, and felt it was neglected in favor of geologic information. The material sounds very much like a research paper with columns of word lists meant to be looked at, not read aloud. All too often, information on animal life is merely noted as a long string of scientific species names, either emerging or disappearing during the Triassic.

On the other hand, there is very interesting information on climate, atmosphere, ocean changes, and theories on the cause of the greatest mass extinction ever. A plausible and fascinating theory involves an antipodal (opposite side of the earth) meteor impact so great that the Earth's mantle may have cracked, leaking lava worldwide and superheating the oceans. It could have caused the rifts that allowed the supercontinent of Pangaea to eventually break apart.

The reader was pretty good. He avoided droning on in a monotone, even though a lot of the information was pretty dry. He did mispronounce at least 3 words which were not particularly difficult (i.e. "Tan-ZAYN-ia instead of "Tan-zah-NIA"), but seemed to handle the many Latin terms pretty well. Altogether, I found this an interesting and worthwhile investment at the modest cash price of just under $5, although I would not have spent a full credit for this. In fact, I used a promotional coupon, and was mostly satisfied with the material, only wishing that there had been more details on the evolution of animals during this period. I will probably listen again when I'm craving prehistoric material.

The same "author" publishing group has a Jurassic Period and a Cretaceous Period overview, and what looks like the pair of them combined as "The Age of Reptiles" for double the price. I just wish they would put all three of these together in one set, and then I'd happily spend a credit for the whole Mesozoic Era group.

only half the book narrated dont buy

My mistake more than half the book is credits. I really liked the geology but half is credits?

Should never be an audio book

This lightening whizz through the Triassic has nothing going for it pedagogically. Without illustration it becomes a catalog of often mispronounced Latin names that is dry and uninformative. Many of the views and theories are out dated and hint of bias against the view that carbon dioxide can become damaging to the environment. The section on ocean acidification is particularly ill informed, minimizing the possible impact of ocean acidification because CO2 levels in the past were higher and marine life survived. This displays a disappointing grasp of the underlying science. In summary: outdated, dull and boring. You can do better.