The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 252.2 ± 0.5 Ma and 247.2 Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic, which is a unit in chronostratigraphy. The Early Triassic is the oldest epoch of the Mesozoic era and is divided into the Induan and Olenekian ages.
The Lower Triassic series is coeval with the Scythian stage, which is today not included in the official timescales but can be found in older literature. In Europe, most of the Lower Triassic is composed of so-called Buntsandstein, a lithostratigraphic unit of continental red beds.
Read more about Early Triassic: Early Triassic Life, Smithian-Spathian Extinction
Famous quotes containing the word early:
“Our instructed vagrancy, which has hardly time to linger by the hedgerows, but runs away early to the tropics, and is at home with palms and banyans—which is nourished on books of travel, and stretches the theatre of its imagination to the Zambesi.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)