Start of a New Age - Santa Maria Formation

The terrible extinction event at the end of the Permian wiped out most of the life on Earth and marked the end of the Paleozoic. A new Era, the Mesozoic, would begin on the planet and in its first Period, the Triassic, life was recovering and experiencing adaptations through different niches in ecosystems heavily shaken by the super extinction. New lineages emerged and thrived, including the dinosaurs.

The art depicts the paleoenvironment of the Santa Maria Formation, late Triassic where south Brazil is today. In front of the scene, a Dynamosuchus collisensis kills a juvenile Aetosauroides scagliai. Primarily a scavenger, this ~2 m long ornithosuchid did not missed the opportunity to take down a live prey, where the armor of the young aetosaur was no problem for its powerful bite. It will not, however, be able to enjoy this successful hunt, as a larger predator, a 3 m long Rauisuchus tiradentes, advances with the intention of stealing the prize. Curious dinosaurs watch the dispute: a pair of Staurikosaurus pricei, theropods measuring a little over 2 m, observes everything from the safety of a small elevation. One of them carries a Clevosaurus brasiliensis (a rhynchocephalian, like the extant tuatara) in its mouth, a small meal they'll keep for their waiting babies. Destined to collapse from the elevation is an already inclined trunk of the ginkgophyte Sphenobaiera sp.

A group of Exaeretodon riograndensis, highly abundant cynodonts in the fossil record, feed on Cladophlebis sp. ferns. The skull of an adult E. riograndensis can reach ~28 cm, although this maximum size may be biased by the available sampling. Its relative from the Ischigualasto Formation (Late Triassic in Argentina), E. argentinus, has the largest known skull measuring around 49 cm, what indicates either a clear difference in size between the species, or hints that the Exaeretodon of Santa Maria may have grown more.

Other common herbivores of the environment are also seen in the area, the 1.3 m rhynchosaurs Hyperodapedon huenei, with their strange beaks. Resting on the river bank, in front of the large horsetails Neocalamites sp., are some Proterochampsa nodosa, semi-aquatic predators whose skull, full of protuberances, reached ~42 cm.

Further back is a Saturnalia tupiniquim, a sauropodomorph measuring less than 2 m that reflects well the beginning of this lineage - small/medium sized agile animals, very different from the giant sauropods we would see in the Jurassic or Cretaceous. Nearby is a group of Ixalerpeton polesinensis, small (approx. 70 cm) relatives of the pterosaurs. Resting on a fallen log is a formidable predator that grew to nearly 1.5 m, the cynodont Trucidocynodon riograndensis.

The dominant flora according to the fossil record are multiple species of Dicroidium, a plant depicted with the appearance of a long palm tree (reaching 10 m in height) with a twisted trunk, following the proposed reconstruction for the Dicroidium of the Ischigualasto Formation. A few small individuals are also illustrated representing primarily young plants - or, more speculatively, smaller species to reflect the variety of the fossils. Other trees that compose the forest in the scene are Ginkgoites antartica and Podozamites sp., the latter reconstructed as a large conifer.

Taeniopteris sp. is an enigmatic plant, from a group that possibly grew as brambles near rivers under the shade of trees, avoiding competition for light. There are also specimens of Nilssonia (depicted as a cica-like plant, what is uncertain) and Williamsonia, which are also present in the Formation records.

New artwork for Tales from the Phanerozoic, a project by João Macêdo. Check it out: https://sites.google.com/view/talesfromthephanerozoic/