20 Current Research in the Triassic-Jurassic Newark Supergroup Basins

Friday, 11 April 2008
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

POSSIBLE CAUSE OF THE TRIASSIC COAL HIATUS

Paper number: 20-2
Program: THEME SESSIONS
Time: 8:20 AM – 8:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

When the Triassic commenced a coal hiatus (no coal) appeared simultaneously all over the world at the Permian -Triassic boundary. Probably a sudden large drop in sea level permitted whatever caused the hiatus, and thus accounts for the sudden appearance, for at the close of the Permian there was an even quicker drop in sea level than the slower drop that had occurred in its last half, the sharpest in history. I suggest that the hiatus was caused by the evolution of the Mastotermitidae termite family and its spread around the world at that time, probably from North America. There are fossil roaches from there that have wings closely similar to Mastotermitidae.

In addition there was also a spike of fungal spores immediately after the Permian-Triassic boundary

The hiatus ended about 10 million years later starting in or near Australia because the coal reappeared there first by several million years. It is possible that the evolution of the ancestors of the parisitoid Evaniidae, which are parasites of roach egg sacs, could have been the ones involved, and this may explain why termites evolved separated eggs except for the Mastotermitidae.