The earlier dinosaurs of the Triassic are often overshadowed by their larger and more glamorous decedents. Though less flashy than later genera these were important animals in their time that paved the way and gave rise to the later dinosaurs we all know and love.
Shonisaurus was an upper Triassic Ichtyosaur from Northern Ameria that probably fit the ecological niche of today´s sperm whales. The fact that adult animals did not have teeth can as well lead to the conclusion that it could have been a plankton filtering animal.
Mastodonsaurus (“breast tooth lizard”) was a Russian and European temnospondyl that belonged to a group of advanced, mostly Triassic amphibians called capitosaurids. It lived in swampy pools and fed mainly on fish, but probably did not avoid land living animals such as small early archosaurids.
