The Triassic period is the first of the three divisions of the Mesozoic era, which is known as "The Age of Reptiles." The period lasted for 37 million years, from 245 to 208 million years ago. The Triassic is named after a tricolor sequence of red, white and brown rock layers found in Germany.

Towards the end of the Paleozoic era, which preceded the Triassic, Earth's great crustal plates collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea. Early in the Triassic, Pangaea began to break apart again in a process that is still going on. North America, Europe, and Asia split away as one continent (called Laurasia) from South America, Australia, India, Africa, and Antarctica (known as Gondwanaland). These giant continents continued to break apart into the land masses we have today.

The Triassic began with a relatively warm and wet climate. However, deposits of fossilized sand dunes and evaporites (rocks formed from...