38 GEOLOGY. 



Africa and Australia. — The Triassic system seems to be present 

 in South Africa (Karoo sandstone), in Australia (Hawkesbury sand- 

 stone of New South Wales), and in New Zealand and New Caledonia. 

 In New Zealand, it contains coarse conglomerate. 



General provinces. — Reviewing the Triassic system of all coun- 

 tries, Kayser 1 recognizes five provinces of the marine part of the 

 system. There are (1) the Mediterranean province, (2) the southern 

 Asiatic province, (3) the Paleo-arctic province, (4) the American (western 

 North and South America) province, and (5) the Australian province. 

 This grouping is based largely on faunal characteristics. The first 

 and second provinces have some species and many genera in common, 

 while the fourth has some likeness with the first, second, and third. 



The Life of the Triassic Period. 



Those remarkable physical conditions that had dominated the 

 land and impoverished its fauna and flora in the Permian period still 

 held sway during the earlier part of the Triassic. In their general 

 biological aspects, as in their physical, the two periods were akin, if 

 not really parts of one great land period. Toward the close of the 

 Triassic there was a pronounced change, attended by a physical and 

 biological transition toward the Jurassic stage, in which lower levels 

 and greater sea encroachment prevailed, with corresponding life phases. 

 Nearly all that is known of North American Triassic life belongs to 

 this later portion of the period. 



The Plant Life. 



The record of the vegetation is very imperfect. The vegetation 

 was probably scant in reality, for broad saline basins and arid tracts 

 imply conditions inhospitable to plant life. An environment that 

 could give rise so generally to coarse red sandstones and conglomer- 

 ates — even limestone conglomerates — could not well be congenial to 

 luxuriant vegetation. 



The dominance of the gymnosperms. — The Triassic was distinctly 

 an age of gymnosperms the world over; the supremacy of the pteri- 

 dophytes had ceased, though ferns, true to their persistent nature, 

 still held an important place, and the equisetales were a more vital 



1 Geologische Formationskunde, pp. 327-329. 



