A Triassic Fauna from Madagascar, Including Early Dinosaurs

Abstract

The discovery of a Middle to Late Triassic ( approximately 225 to 230 million years old) terrestrial vertebrate fauna from Madagascar is reported. This fauna documents a temporal interval not well represented by continental vertebrate assemblages elsewhere in the world. It contains two new prosauropod dinosaurs, representing some of the earliest dinosaur occurrences known globally. This assemblage provides information about the poorly understood transition to the dinosaur-dominated faunas of the latest Triassic.