TIME

First Dinosaurs

≈ 230 million years ago

A mounted skeleton of Eoraptor, a small, slender, two-legged early dinosaur, in a museum exhibit.

Earth & LifeFirst Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs appear in the Triassic.

The earliest definite dinosaurs appeared in the Late Triassic. They began small and uncommon, and their descendants came to dominate many ecosystems on land.

The oldest unambiguous dinosaurs are about 230 million years old. Nyasasaurus, from about 240 million, may be older but is too incomplete.

230 million years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Earth & Life
Period
≈ 230 million years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing small early dinosaurs in a misty valley. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. Colours and surroundings are imagined.