448 THE TRIASSIC PERIOD 



western Europe was warm and dry, evaporation exceeding rain- 

 fall. 



In southern Europe the Trias was formed under very different 

 conditions. A great sea covered all that region, extending from 

 Spain over the site of the Alps eastward to the Himalayas, and 

 in this region the deposits are mostly limestones, with very rich 

 marine faunas. In the lower Trias the Mediterranean was not 

 connected with the Pacific or Arctic oceans, but in the middle 

 division, as we have seen, the connection was made, and Mediter- 

 ranean species extended their range to California. Around the 

 borders of the Pacific-Arctic seas were laid down the Triassic 

 deposits of northern and eastern Siberia, Spitzbergen, Japan, New 

 Zealand, and the west coasts of North and South America. 



The peninsular part of India was still, to a great extent, cov- 

 ered by the inland sea which had been formed there in the Per- 

 mian period (see p. 437), and part of the great Gondwana series 

 is referable to the Trias. In South Africa part of the Karoo 

 series is Permian, but most of it is Triassic ; it consists of 8000 to 

 10,000 feet of shales and sandstones laid down in an inland sea. 

 That the land connection with India persisted is indicated by the 

 continued similarity of the land animals and plants. 



The Life of the Triassic 



Triassic life is entirely different from anything that had pre- 

 ceded it, though the way for the change was already preparing in 

 the Permian. As we have seen, the Upper Permian, if classified 

 by its plants alone, would be referred to the Mesozoic rather than 

 to the Palaeozoic, and we are therefore prepared to learn that the 

 Triassic flora is very similar to that of the Upper Permian. 



Plants. — Triassic vegetation is composed of Ferns, Ho?'setails, 

 Cycads, and Conifers, and of such plants were the Newark coals 

 of Virginia and North Carolina and the Keuper coals of Germany 

 and Sweden accumulated. The Ferns are relatively somewhat 

 less abundant than they had been in the Carboniferous, and many 

 of them belong to the existing tropical family of the Marattiacecz. 



