From The Dinosaur Collector;

Late Triassic, 210 million years ago,   The first real cracks in the world- continent.  This was particularly apparent around North America which began to separate from Europe, to the East, and from the old Gondwanan continents of Africa and South America to the South.  The climate of most of the world was intensely dry and hot.  Southern Gondwanaland, Northern Europe and Greenland were thickly wooded subtropical refuges for animals requiring a cooler, wetter environments.  Dinosaurs still shared the Earth with many diverse pseudosuchians and therapsids. Dinosaurs formed only a small part of the community initially.    There were two large extinctions in the Late Triassic one at the beginning and another at the end.  In the first the rhynchosaurs, dicynodonts and most cynodonts died out.  In the second the remaining cynodonts and thecodonts died out.  This left the dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodiles to fill the vacant niches.  From the Late Triassic into Early Jurassic, dinosaur radiation produces faunas with coelophysoids as top predators and prosauropods and various ornithischian groups (primitive thyreophorans, heterodontosaurids, etc.) as main herbivores. A good Late Triassic example is Chinle Formation of the American Southwest that is famous for the Petrified Forest.  In the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction: almost all non-crocodyliform pseudosuchians and non-mammalian therapsids die out. Dinosaurs are left as the dominant group.  update 4/19/05

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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.  The company has proved long lived and has even revived somewhat since an ownership change.

Saltoposuchus (Leaping Crocodile) at about 3 - 4 feet, a small, long-tailed, bipedal animal that for a long time was thought by some to have been close to the ancestry of the dinosaurs. This idea was prompted by the fact that Saltoposuchus and a few related contemporaries were among the first animals to achieve bipedal stance and gait -- that is, to be able to stand and move on two legs. Bipedal locomotion was first really perfected in some of the early dinosaurs; hence the presumed connection with Saltoposuchus. New studies, however, indicate that this animal probably belonged to a group of primitive crocodilians.  It may be the same a Terrestrisuchus which is thought to be a juvenal.

Starlux Saltoposuchus, the animal was included in the famous Yale Peabody mural done by Zallinger and that is why it shows up in a few toys lines.

Aetosaurs were sizeable relatives of crocodiles, that grew to be 3 -  17 feet long, the average being about (10 feet). Most aetosaurs  (eagle lizards)  possessed a rather narrow crocodile-like body, although some had a broad turtle-like midsection, probably expanded to contain a large fermenting gut. The animal was protected throughout by an armor covering over the neck and the upper and under surfaces of the trunk and tail. Some species, such as Desmatosuchus, also had heavy spikes along the shoulders and flanks. Based on their fossils and the fact that they were herbivores, aetosaurs probably relied on their armor and large size rather than speed to protect them from predators. 

 Schleich Dematosuchus and Kaiyodo Choco Egg series 5 Coelophysis

The northern hemisphere communities are characterized by the abundance of phytosaurs and labyrinthidont amphibians.  The phytosaurs looked and probably behaved like crocodiles but evolved their features independently.  The distinguishing feature is that the phytosaurs nostrils are placed in front of the eyes instead of on the end of the snout.  Mastodontosaurus "teat-like tooth lizard",  was 18 feet long and found in Europe.  Labyrinthidont amphibians disappear except for some isolated holdouts in Australia by the end of the Triassic.  The phytosaurs also die out.  They may have been replaced by crocodiles or just unlucky.

This a Schleich gavial customized into a phytosaur by moving the nostrils just before the eyes.  The Mastodontosaurus is by Bullyland from Stuttgart Museum series discontinued in 2004.  This choice may seem unusual to North Americans but the animal is relatively well known in Europe where it was discovered early.

Gerrothorax was about 3 feet long and lived in Sweden.  It lived permanently in the water laying flat in streams and lake beds.   

PlayVision Gerrothorax from the prehistoric amphibian series.  A brief an excellent series that has become much sought after.

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.

Placerias was among the last of the dicynodonts.

Tyco Dino Riders Placeria and the Marx Cynognathus.  Our perception of Cynonathus has evolved since the Marx days.  Current figures are much more mammal like as opposed to the more lizard like look of Marx times.  The cycad is from the Aurora model kit.

While the ornithisuchids and rauschids continued to share the top predator slot with dinosaurs, dinosaurs take over the small to medium carnivore roles and prosaurapods take over the herbivore category.  Ornithosuchus (bird crocodile) was 14 feet long and once considered an early dinosaur, now as an advanced archosaur closely related to the dinosaurs. It could walk upright but probably usually moved on all fours. Its hips, toes and back armor were primitive, but the skull quite advanced.

Ornithosuchus from the Thunder Beast by  Sky Kids and the Play Vision Coelophysis from their American National History Museum line.  Jurassic Park spawned an outstanding line of articulated figures produced by Hasbro.  The Ornithosuchus is the WalMart version and the two Coelophysis are poseable.

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