by the Dinosaur Collector
The last stage of of the Late Triassic 203 to199 million years ago. The world continent, Pangea, is still mostly intact but Gondwanaland and Laurasia are just starting break away from each other. Both flora are fauna are similar around the world indicating that no barriers existed to isolate populations. Prosauropods and coelphysids are the most common dinosaurs from last of the Late Triassic to the end of the Early Jurassic. Prosauropods and stegosaurs have the distinction of being the only major groups to die out before the end of the mesozoic. The climate is arid relieved only by megamonsoons, oxygen levels drop and the may have been a strike from space at the end of the Triassic. The environment was alternately baked then flooded. Low oxygen levels may have favored the avian style lung system of the dinosaurs. Low oxygen would have caused confiers to grow faster and high but reduced their food value. Both would have favored large herbivores like prosaurpods and sauropods. The Plateosaurus and Coelophysis bone beds from this time are thought to be the result of flash floods. update 112407
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Coelophysids take over in the Rhaetian. Small ceratosaurs like Coelophysis are more common than originally thought. There were a wide range of closely related animals. They seem to fall into the same general body plan slender active bodies made for running, with long necks, tails and heads. They vary in size with differences in crests. The hollow bones proably reflect an early version of the avian lung giving htem an an advangtage in a time of low oxygen. They are the most wide spread carnivores of the Late Triassic.
Starlux Coelophysis and prosauropod
Coelophysis (Hollow form) is the famous find at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. This 10 foot long therapod lived through out North America. Whole families, from very small juveniles to adults have been found together in New Mexico. Where they died in some ancient catastrophe. Often accused of eating it young because of skeletons of young ones found near the stomachs of adults, this most likely is a result of how the bodies moved after death.
Coelophysis from a series of dinosaurs first marketed by K&M toys and later by a variety of different companies eventually becoming common in Dollar Stores as party favors. The paint job of the figures seems to vary based on the distributor. The figures are numbered but not named so the identity of the figure is open to debate. It be any of the smaller coelosaurs. It certainly would make a good Podokesaurus. Add a crest and you have Syntarsus or Liliensternus. They are good candidates for custom build ups. The series contained 24 figures some being hard to place.
They diversify and evolve many smaller forms like Anchisaurus and larger animals similar to the sauropods. Dicynodonts may have survided until the end of the period.
Schleich retired Plateosaurus is posed on all fours unlike most figures.
Phytosaurs (plant lizards) are important predators in the wetter parts of Northern Laurasia. They belong to the same group of archosaurs as crocodiles and aetosaurus. While phytosasurs looked and probably lived like todays freshwater crocs they evolved their features separately. The long jaws are made up of the premaxillae while crocs jaws are made from the maxillae. The most noticeable difference is the phytosaurs have the nostrils in a mound in front of the eyes not at the end of the snout.
Kaiyodo Choco Egg series 5 Plateosaurus.
While the ornithisuchids and rauschids continued to share the top predator slot with dinosaurs, dinosaurs take over the small to medium carnivore roles and prosauropods take over the herbivore category.
Prosauropods were once seen as the ancestors of the giant sauropods of the Late Jurassic but recent finds of sauropods in Thailand and South Africa show sauropods present in the Late Triassic. The finds are scrappy and rare but they seem to indicate large animals with bony nodules for armor. While many of the larger Prosauropods were bipedal the newly hatched ran around on four feet moving to two as they developed.
Plateosaurus was one of the largest herbivores of its time at 27 feet. There were
numerous similar looking prosauropods the 61/2-foot Anchisaurus , the 30-foot Euskelosaurus and the 13-foot Massospondylus. 
The Postosuchus is from the English Toyway line based on the Walking with Dinosaurs Documentary. The high quality toys were never sold widely in the US. Currently out of production. The Plateosaurus is distributed by Jasman. Jasman and several other toy companies distributed a series of large vinyl figures. The figures may be from several different producers. They appear to represent several different manufacturing processes and vary widely in quality. Plateosaurus is one of the better examples. Most appear have been cast in sections and joined like Plateosaurus, while others appear to be the result single piece of injection molding. All are stamped with Made and in China and the animal name. They remain popular as sand box style figures.
Bullyland Plateosaurus museum and standard version.
The best known predecessor of the Crocodiles is Protosuchus. The size could reach 3 feet long. The body was covered and reinforced by scales, the long of their back, by a double row of bony plates. They must be, at the same time, good runners and good swimmers like our present Crocodiles. They lived in North of America and in Europe from the end of Triassic to the beginning of Jurassic. Crocodiles did not become specialized for a strictly amphibious life style until later. This may be because they couldn't compete with dinosaurs on land. When the dinosaurs became extinct terrestrial crocodiles reevolved in the Paleocene and Eocene but lost out to mammalian predators.
Protosuchus from Starlux of France a popular maker of scale model soldiers. Starlux figures are hard to find and not very modern looking but they have a large line and do figures nobody else does. Their Protosuchus is a good match for the most common reconstructions.
Dilophosaurus the best known large carnivore doesn't appear until the Jurassic and is just a scaled up version of the same design. At the end of the Early Jurassic the climate gets wetter, plants get bigger and so do dinosaurs. The sauropods come into their own and large carnivores start to show up. Cycadoids start to die out with conifers and cycads becoming dominate. The prosauropods disappear. They were not the ancestors of the giants of the later Jurassic giants but cousins.
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