The following is my translation of an article called: 'Aus der Triaszeit' von Dr B Lindemann, Göttingen. It first appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1910, Heft 6, Seiten 204-210. The original article is illuminated with six sumptuous drawings. These are so attractive, that I feel compelled to keep them all to myself. Find your own.
As the article was written around a century ago, some of the terminology is very different to that used in the present day. The picture presented is comparatively thin to that based on subsequent find, but it remains broadly accurate. However, changes in the use of language can be dramatic. For example, at the time of writing, many authors used the term 'marsupials' very loosely for just about any mammals that weren't placentals. I've chosen to briefly interrupt the text on a couple of occasions, and offer my apologies to Dr Lindemann. I'm not aware of any previous translation.
Trevor Dykes.

From the Triassic by Dr B Lindemann, Göttingen
This article offered to our readers is an extract from the first instalment of B Lindemann, 'Der Erde', Eine allgemein verständliche Geologie, Band 1, complete in 8 to 10 instalments at 80 pfennigs each. Fränckn'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart.
(Added note: the same society published Kosmos.)

Germany and, a significant part of Western Europe, appear to have been a hot, arid desert landscape during the first third of the Triassic. That our Buntsandstein deposits seem to have mainly been blown together by the wind in a desert is a conclusion that has become almost certain, given the recent research of the well known geologist, Joh. Walther. The Buntsandstein has such a distribution, namely in South Hanover, Hessian, Thüringen, Saxony, that a large part of our readership have undoubtedly encountered it for themselves. Generally, it has a deep red colour due to the iron rich material binding the sand grains together, but white, green and colourfully mixed varieties also commonly occur. In the regions just mentioned, the Buntsandstein is popular for building houses despite it not being especially suitable, as it takes up water like a sponge and then dries out uncommonly slowly, a characteristic which often has unpleasant consequences for the sides of walls exposed to the elements. One uses hard, rigid varieties for millstones and, in the Middle Ages, the stone frequently found service for decorative works. Should the Buntsandstein really have been blown together and then compressed from desert sand, then its obvious poverty of fossils would be unsurprising. Large areas of our Fatherland were then completely devoid of animal or plant life. Only in thin, intermittent layers, which are almost invisible when compared to the massive sandstones, can remains of an impoverished fauna be found. There are small mussels and snails, but only a few species, scales of ganoid fish (Schmelzschuppen such as the modern sturgeon), and bone remnants of very remarkable amphibians, so called labyrinthodonts. However, the most common fossils from such strata are impressions and cores of a tiny shelled crab, which looks similar enough to be mistaken for some mussels. One has named this animal Estheria minuta; it belongs to the order of the phyllopodan as does the extant Branchipus or Apus. This relationship throws some light onto the sudden mass appearance and also the rapid disappearance of esterians in single layers of the Buntsandstein.

Superstition maintains the Apus falls from the sky. The animals appear in their thousands after heavy rain showers in streams or large fresh puddles. These habitats disappear when they dry out, often for years, and they suddenly reappear in times of copious water. The origin of these remarkable phenomenon lies in the earth and certainly not in the sky: the Apus lays its eggs in the mud of the puddles, and they preserve the ability to develop for years, even after the disappearance of the water. Many prehistoric animals behaved similarly, in that they existed as capsules during the drought and remained in this condition for an unknown length of time, until development could carry on.

It is nearly certain that the estherians of the Buntsandstein behaved similarly to the myth surrounded Apus. These crabs probably lived in shallow lakes that formed temporarily in the Buntsandstein deserts, as results of drastic floods. Such 'dry lakes' are entirely normal in the steppes and deserts of Asia; they form there after cloudbursts and are then rapidly evaporated by the hot desert sun. It is also conceivable that Buntsandstein areas were occasionally subjected to marine transgressions which left saltwater behind, and estherians but also mussels, snails and fish may have led a kind of prison life until the increasing salinity of the water (resulting from evaporation) meant their oblivion.

Such conditions undoubtedly occurred during the youngest part of the Buntsandstein, the so called Röt. At that time, there was a fierce battle between the desert landscape and the invading sea, during which first one and then the other gained temporary victory. Time and again, the land forced the attacking sea back, the desert spread and regained its previously lost territory. Plaster, and sometimes rock salt, accumulated in the countless evaporated salt pans. Remains of sea creatures are more common, even ammonites occur, but the fauna of the Röt remains very poor in comparison to the genuine oceanic deposits. Strata with plant fossils, namely in Western Germany, the giant horse tail trees, tree ferns, strange extinct conifers with deeply grooved 'cones' and, as a rarity, a lycopodiophytan tree, the last late straggler of the one time rulers of the Carboniferous forest, combine to form the German flora of this age. Finally, as the sea gained the upper hand for a prolonged period, layers of lime were deposited in most parts of the Buntkalkstein, and these are universally known as Muschelkalk. Various clues show that the sea generally remained shallow, indeed, some areas completely dried out on occasions, allowing new deposits of plaster and rock salt. It was not until the end of the Muschelkalk age that the sea gained some depth.

The name Muschelkalk only really fits individual strata (banks in the language of geologists), in which fossilised shells of invertebrates often occur in such masses, that the binding material between them can hardly be seen. Sometimes, the overwhelming majority of shells belong to a single species, for example a terabratel* (Lochmuschel) or a real mussel of the genera Lima, Gervilla, Pecten and Myophoria. Other banks contain enormous quantities of Stielglieder, a delicate, extinct sea lily, small prettily drawn discs, the so called Boniface's pfennigs or Trochiten, which have already been pictured on page 76 of the Kosmos issues from 1909. (Note: I've just looked and he's quite right!) One has named the species Ecrinus liliiformis. All these animal colonies sometimes died off, probably because the sea became too shallow and too salty, or completely dried out. Because of this, strata containing a rich animal world alternate with mighty rock deposits in which fossils are rare or even not to be found.

(* The terebrateln belong to the brachiopods, and they were common during the Devonian.)

One can only talk of a rich animal life in terms of individual numbers but not in terms of species or genera. The animal life of the German Muschelkalk is decidedly bland, and that is characteristic of isolated seas. Many of the animals in the neighbouring Mediterranean do not occur in today's Black Sea, and the Muschelkalk sea had much less variety than the greater Southern sea- Remarkably, the difference is pronounced among the same classes and groups: corals, sponges, sea anemones, brachiopods, cephalopods. The first three of these groups are almost absent in the German Triassic whereas, in the Alps, coral were dominant when it came to building mighty reefs. Common Muschelkalk fossils do include brachiopods, the terebratel mentioned above, and some ammonites count as index fossils for the more recent Muschelkalk age, when the sea was relatively deep and had an open connection with the southern sea -but it still did not compare with the astonishing diversity of the Alpine Triassic, especially the ammonites. Recent investigations show the majority of ammonites lived communally on the muddy bed of this fairly deep sea basin and avoided the shallow waters in coastal areas, behaviour shown today by the nautilus, which is only rarely found at the surface. Depths of a hundred to a few hundred metres are best assumed for most ammonites. However, there were also genera and species which could easily have lived in shallow water. Some of them dared to leave the southern sea for the shallow German Muschelkalk sea with Ceratites nodosus at their head, a broad backed ammonite with powerful, thickly knotted ribs. Ceratites could thrive in the internal sea of Germany, with broken parts of its house found almost everywhere in Muschelkalk areas spread on paths, fields and exposed cliffs. The intruders from the south almost fully died out as, at the start of the Kupferzeit, the sea retreated and changed large areas into swampy lowlands, especially in Central and Southwest Germany. The main part of the German Keuper (Hauptkeuper) consists of deposits piled up partly by rivers and partly in swamps and salt lakes. There are colourful sandstones, often bright red or green clays with remains of plants and crocodile-like river reptiles, and also plaster and salt deposits. Genuine marine sediments are only found in the lower and upper borders of the Keuper, and the latter show all the characteristics of beach building. Its index fossil is a small, winged mussel, Avicula contorta, which belonged to the same genus as the highly prized pearl oyster

of the Indian Ocean. Wherever the characteristically twisty shells are found, in Germany as in Alpine areas, they signal the transition from the Triassic to the Jurassic, they were carried there by the newly transgressing sea which, this time, was no localised sea but the ocean itself, which conquered step by step almost the whole of Central Europe, and ruled there for many millions of years.

The following can be said of the characters of the German Keuper.

Firstly, the deposition of coal. In the swampy lowlands on the shores of the numerous small lakes were gathered thickets of plants, and the remains built up into small seams of coal. This Lettenkohle is only very rarely worth mining, as the amounts are too insignificant and they are too strongly contaminated with clay and sand. Interestingly, the flora shows clear progress in comparison to that of the Buntsandstein. The horse tails and ferns begin to retreat before the rapid radiation of the cycads; this is the end of the hitherto hegemony of the spore plants, cryptogams and the beginnings of the phanerogams, even if the naked seeds of the flowering plants (gymnosperms) do not take that position until the end of the Cretaceous. The cycads of the Keuperzeit show a surprising diversity of forms. As well as groups which are now extinct, other members found include the living Mexican sago Zamia and the actual sago (Cycas). The landscape of the cycad forests must have provided a very peculiar picture: short, thick and hardly or completely unbranched trees, which opened out above with a wide crown of marvellous palm fronds.

Illustration number 5 shows us the dominant animals of the Southern German Keuper landscape. An internal sea lies in front of us, and it is surrounded by huge walls of dunes. Araucarian forests cover the land and, in damp parts, tree-high horse hairs, katydids, palm-like cycads and a variety of fern plants grow. Animals are found below, and the adventuresome, threatening figure of the Zanclodon or 'terrible reptile' immediately comes to the eye. It is a relative of Compsognathus, which is known from the Jurassic landscape, only this one is incomparably larger: the longest specimens measure at least seven metres from the tip of the tail to the head! Remarkably, the head is missing from all the specimens found so far but, as can be concluded from a few poorly preserved fragments, the head was very small in comparison to the rest of the body. The monster was armed with powerful claws, and was undoubtedly a dangerous predator which no other land animal of the time could withstand.

The mastery of the water then lay with crocodile-like reptiles, but they differ from real crocodiles in various regards, with the latter group first known from the Jurassic.

For example, the external nostrils possess a common exit at the tip of the snout, and the internal openings (choanae) are found far to the rear on the end of often very elongated gums. The crocodiles of the Keuperzeit, in contrast, had divided nostrils set much further back towards the eyes, while the choanae are much further forward. There are also further differences in the bone construction. Nevertheless, the Keuper crocodiles were overall visually similar to those of today. Belodon (positioned left in the landscape) compares with a Nile crocodile, Mystriosuchus (right) is reminiscent of a Ganges gavial due to its strongly lengthened snout.

The crocodile group, in its widest sense (Added note: this is going far too wide for my tastes!), includes the gracile, only 60cm long Aetosaurus or Neckersuarus (right in the foreground). The external nostrils are also separated but were positioned at the tip of the snout. The pointed, triangular head is also characteristic for this animal, as is the impressive and complete armour covering both the back and belly. In the so called Stubensandstein from near Stuttgart, a single slab contained 24 complete skeletons of Aetosaurus but, up until now, this uncommonly rich find remains the only one. As the final remarkable feature, the terrestrial tortoise, Psammochelys, requires a mention, the geologically oldest representative of tortoises known.

As for the plant kingdom, the animal world also appears to have experienced a significant change during the Keuperzeit. From the upper Keuper of Württemberg and England come the presently oldest known, unfortunately very incomplete, remains of mammals: small, cusped teeth which perhaps are marsupial, although dissimilar to all living forms, and they have been referred to an independent order (Allotheria, 'different beasts'). (Rude interruption: Dr Lindemann can only be referring to the possible mammal now known as Thomasia.) Some researchers maintain the platypus is more closely related than the marsupials, and others even want to count them as reptiles. This argument could only be resolved should well preserved remains from the rest of the skeleton be found -but perhaps not even then, as these cusped teeth from the bonebed of the Swabian Keuper might really belong to transitionary forms, intermediaries between the platypus and marsupials. A further direction is provided by a remarkable animal group from the Karoo Formation of South Africa. Research there finds itself in a more fortunate position; skulls, and parts of the spine and, from one genus, even an almost complete skeleton is available. It has become apparent that these remains are from a highly developed group of reptiles with mammal-like characteristics -indeed, some genera can sensibly and justifiably be referred to a different class. (A further interruption: It's called Synapsida.)

The 'Karoo Formation' of South Africa is a massive assemblage of strata reaching from Cape Land up to German East Africa, and it is chronologically divided across three geological periods, Permian, Triassic and Liassic -from the middle, out of deposits similar to our Buntsandstein, comes a precious society of animals. Presumably most of South Africa was also a sand desert at this time, but there were extensive oases of ferns and giant horse tails, and these hosted a rich fauna. A very strange member was the Pareiosaurus (picture 6. Added note: it's a Permian reptile) with a long but uncommonly plump figure, short thick legs and wide five-toed feet, but with some aspects of the bone structure providing a certain measure of unification of amphibians and mammals. Remarkably, one has also discovered it in northern Russia but not, as yet, in the areas between. Unfortunately, it is the only form for which a complete skeleton is known. Much nearer to mammals are a few South Africans represented solely by skulls. They have something unheard of for reptiles -a clear and diverse carnivore dentition divided into incisors, canines and postcanines. The strongly developed canines thrust out and separate the incisors from the postcanines. These ancient predators are thus beyond the circles of reptiles, and more in a straight line towards the class of mammals. They have been named theriodonts because of their very mammal-like dentition.

Unfortunately, the further development of this interesting group is not yet known. The large forms seem to disappear without descendants at the end of the Triassic. However, smaller theriodonts of about rabbit-size also then lived in South Africa, and they can hardly be distinguished from real marsupials. (Added note: Even I can manage to do that, so this must be a very loose usage indeed!). Perhaps these are the connection showing marsupials of the Jurassic showing marsupials of the Jurassic and Cretaceous developed from lizards, and then gave rise to the community of mammals, which have previously been met in the Tertiary levels of Cernay near Rheims.

Translator's additional apology for the interruptions
Sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It's not Dr Lindemann's fault that uses of terminology have changed and lots more fossils became available. As long as such factors are kept in mind, he still provides a useful summary.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

http://www.geocities.com/trevor_dykes/kosmostranslations.htm

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.