Abstract The Ørsted Dal Member of the Upper Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation in East Greenland is well known for its rich vertebrate fauna, represented by numerous specimens of both body and ichnofossils. In particular, the footprints of theropod dinosaurs have been described. Recently, an international expedition discovered several slabs with 100 small chirotheriid pes and manus imprints (pes length 4–4.5 cm) in siliciclastic deposits of this unit. They show strong similarities with Brachychirotherium , a characteristic Upper Triassic ichnogenus with a global distribution. A peculiar feature in the Fleming Fjord specimens is the lack of a fifth digit, even in more deeply impressed imprints. Therefore, the specimens are assigned here tentatively to cf. Brachychirotherium . Possibly, this characteristic is related to the extremely small size and early ontogenetic stage of the trackmaker. The record from Greenland is the first evidence of this morphotype from the Fleming Fjord Formation. Candidate trackmakers are crocodylian stem group archosaurs; however, a distinct correlation with known osteological taxa from this unit is not currently possible. While the occurrence of sauropodomorph plateosaurs in the bone record links the Greenland assemblage more closer to that from the Germanic Basin of central Europe, here the described footprints suggest a Pangaea-wide exchange. Supplementary material: Three-dimensional model of cf. Brachychirotherium pes–manus set (from MGUH 31233b) from the Upper Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation (Norian–Rhaetian) of East Greenland as pdf, ply and jpg files (3D model created by Oliver Wings; photographs taken by Jesper Milàn) is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.2133546

ABSTRACT In the Northern Calcareous Alps of Austria and Bavaria, Upper Triassic reefs are known from the Carnian (parts of the Wetterstein Reefs; Tisovec Limestones), and from the Norian and Rhaetian (Dachstein Reef Limestones; “upper Rhaetian” reef limestones; Kössen coral limestones). The Dachstein reefs developed predominantly on the southern exposed platform edges. The upper Rhaetian Reefs were formed upon shoals within the relatively shallow Kössen Basin (Rötelwand, Feichtenstein, Gruberalm), near the inner boundary of the Dachstein Platform (Stein-platte), or upon the Dachstein Platform (Adnet). Dachstein Reefs and upper Rhaetian Reefs can be compared with respect to their generic and specific composition of the framebuilding biota, but striking differences are evident with regard to constructional types. Upper Rhaetian Reefs seem to have been developed with an initial mud-mound stage followed by a second stage in which an ecological reef formed in the turbulent zone. In the Dachstein Reefs only the second stage appears to be represented, and the distinction between a central reef area (upper reef-crest and reef-flat) with various framebuilding communities, a fore-reef slope with coarse reef breccias, and an extended back-reef area with open and restricted lagoons, is much more pronounced. The organisms involved in the construction of the primary and secondary framework of Upper Triassic reefs consist of sessile foraminifers, segmented and non-segmented calcisponges, hydrozoans, corals, bryozoans, tab-ulozoans, calcareous algae, and many microproblematica. Reef dwelling organisms are vagile foraminifers, bra-chiopods, gastropods, lamellibranches, a few ammonites, serpulids, crustaceans, ostracodes, echinoderms, fishes, reptiles, and some algae. Our knowledge of the reef biota is strongly biased with respect to the framebuilding organisms, which have been studied in great detail during the last few years. The most important framebuilders are corals and calcisponges, followed by hydrozoans and solenoporacean algae. Corals and calcisponges are generally restricted to different parts of the reefs, and in different zones of water energy. A critical review of the reef building organisms from the upper Rhaetian and Dachstein Reefs reveals great difficulties in their systematical treatment, especially corals, “hydrozoans,” bryozoans, and “tabulozoans,” but also clearly indicates the very strong facies control of the reef biota. This facies control is expressed by the unique distributional patterns of the foraminifers, calcareous algae, and the microproblematica, by which different environments (and facies units) can be recognized. Another hint as to facies control is furnished by a rather regular distribution of the secondary framebuilders, and by the zonal distri-butional patterns of the various reef communities. Using distributional patterns and microfacies types of the limestones, 12 “facies units” can be differentiated within the Upper Triassic reef and platform carbonates: these consist of restricted shelf-areas with tidal-flats, open-shelf environments, areas of winnowed edge sands, and reef complexes. The lateral arrangement of these facies units can change depending upon the paleogeographical setting in which the reefs were formed. In spite of some success in understanding upper Rhaetian Reefs, some important questions still have to be resolved. These include the relationships between the Wetterstein Limestone reefs and the Dachstein Limestone reefs, constructional style of the larger Dachstein Reefs, and the evolution of the reef building communities through time. The latter is one of the topics which is presently being studied by the 4'Erlanger Reef Research Group,” comparing Upper Triassic reefs in the Alps with those in Sicily, Solvenia, and Greece.

Abstract The middle Mesozoic of the southern Junggar Basin is a source of abundant Late Triassic–Jurassic non-marine and Early Jurassic marine–littoral bivalves. The bivalve chronology provides a framework for dating the strata and documents Early Jurassic transgressions and the end-Triassic mass extinction in the Junggar Basin. The first occurrences (FOs) and last occurrences (LOs) of Utschamiella cf. tungussica and Utschamiella cf. obrutschevi lie in the basal upper Rhaetian. The FOs of Ferganoconcha sibirica , Ferganoconcha subcentralis , Unio manasensis , Unio mirabilis and Waagenoperna are at, and the FOs of Margaritifera isfarensis , Tutuella rotunda and Tutuella chachlovi adjoin, the base of the middle Sinemurian. The LOs of Yananoconcha hengshanensis and Waagenoperna are at the Lower–Middle Jurassic boundary. The LOs of Psilunio , Cuneopsis and F . subcentralis are near the Middle–Upper Jurassic boundary. Non-marine bivalves disappeared in the late Rhaetian, due to a sudden Norian–Rhaetian temperature drop. New forms did not return until the Sinemurian, when the climate warmed. The transgressions created low-relief terrestrial environments, in which organisms including bivalves thrived, leading to the formation of large quantities of coal, oil and gas. The Junggar Basin shifted from Arctic to subtropical latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere between the Early and Middle Jurassic.

Abstract Detailed stratigraphic and sedimentological analyses on Late Triassic-early Liassic sections in the internal and external western Alps, the southeast French basin and the southeastern part of the French Massif Central provides the opportunity to study the distribution of sedimentary bodies which were deposited during a long-term transgressive trend at the beginning of a continental encroachment cycle that extended onto the weakly differentiated Late Triassic European platform. Four short-term sequence boundaries can be identified: Late Norian or early Rhaetian, latest Rhaetian, end of early Hettangian and late Hettangian. They bound three sequences (S R , S H1 and S H2 ) whose duration is compatible with Vail's (1992) "sequence cycles". In some places, the first sequence (S R ) can be divides into two minor sequences (S R1 and S R2 ), which define an additional, upper Rhaetian sequence boundary. The second sequence (S H1 ) is also composed locally (subalpine domain) of two minor cycles. Evidence for rapid relative sea-level fall is lacking because of overall subsidence and moderate sediment supply. The maximum flooding intervals of sequences S R1 and S R2 are of Rhaetian age, but they cannot be dated more accurately due to restricted platform facies. Two other maximum flooding intervals are dated with ammonites from the early Hettangian (upper planorbis subzone) and the middle Hettangian (upper portlocki or lower laqueus subzone), respectively The deposition of these sequences is coeval with an increase in extensional tectonic activity whose culmination, during the middle and late Hettangian time, represents the earliest synrift event of Ligurian Tethys rifting in the study area. Differential subsidence, synsedimentary faults and paleostress indicators show that a new tectonic regime was developed, starting at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. This can be correlated to the plate-tectonic reorganization observed, i.e., along the central Atlantic margins and may account for the long-term transgressive trend. As in many other Tethyan or Atlantic areas, this event is marked locally by short-lived intracontinental rift volcanism. The short-term sequences observed indicate some differences to Haq et al.'s (1987) chart, but the transgressive events are known in many areas inside and outside the European realm. The corresponding changes in accommodation space thus cannot be ascribed to local tectonics only. They may have been controlled by eustasy, but the widespread extent and the synchronism of some short events (volcanism around the Triassic/Jurassic boundary; middle-late Hettangian time breakup and drowning) suggest that subsidence, possibly controlled by fluctuations of intraplate stresses, may also have forced the short-term signal.