Understanding Triassic tetrapod community evolution across Pangaea: Contributions from the South American record

Abstract

The Triassic Period witnessed major macroevolutionary patterns among non-marine faunas including the origin and diversification of many key tetrapod linages that later dominated terrestrial ecosystems during the rest of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. In this context, detailed knowledge of individual Triassic tetrapod fossil assemblages in a precise geochronologic framework is of upmost importance for elucidating similarities and differences in communities across biogeographic boundaries. Although, there is a bias towards data from the modern Northern Hemisphere continents, the importance and relevance of the Southern Hemisphere tetrapod fossil record has been widely recognized, particularly the record of non-mammalian therapsids (cynodonts and dicynodonts), stem turtles, non-archosaurian archosauromorphs, early crocodylomorphs, and early dinosaurs and dinosaur precursors. This volume focused in the southern South American record highlights how this outstanding fossil record, together with its temporal and paleoenvironmental context, impacts on our perception of Triassic non-marine ecosystems across Gondwana and the rest of Pangea.