All landmasses were combined to the supercontinent Pangaea. Today's continents South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India formed the partial continent of Gondwana. The global climate was warm and arid in many parts of Pangaea. Occasional heavy rainfalls during the Monsoon times formed wide fluvial systems, deltas, Sabkhas and salt lakes. Rich, characteristic floras dominated by seed ferns mainly occur in higher latitudes, while horsetails, some well-adapted ferns and conifers make up the most part of the less diverse flora in the equatorial areas and in the dry continental hinterland. Large carnivorous amphibians inhabited the more humid areas around rivers, creeks, lakes and swamps, while archosaurs and the first crocodilians were hunting for animals that came to drink. The hinterland offered food for the first dinosaurs - Prosauropods and carnivorous ornithischians. The sky was ruled by small flying reptiles, while sauropterygians dominated the seas. Ammonoids underwent a fast radiation but were nearly entirely extinct at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary.
