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Plants
The Southern Hemisphere was dominated largely by Dicroidium, a fork-leaved seed fern. This species appeared around the beginning of the Triassic period. This eventually replaced another seed fern, Glossopteris, which remained from the Paleozoic and was also initially abundant in the Southern Hemisphere. Other older species, particularly lycophytes, also diminished in number as seed ferns increased. In the Northern Hemisphere, non-seed ferns were also abundant, and conifers flourished. Today's eight existing families of conifers first began to spread across the planet during the Triassic.
Sea Life
Following the extinction of the late Paleozoic era, there was minimal diversity in fish species. Other Triassic marine life flourished, however, with sea urchins, gastropods and cephlapods known as ammonites. Though small in size, modern coral reefs emerged in deep Triassic waters, complete with algae with which they shared mutually beneficial relationships. Fish-eating reptiles made appearances in the ocean, perhaps because of lowered oxygen levels on land. Each uniquely adapted for marine life, nothosaurs, placodonts and ichthyosaurs emerged and thrived in this period.
Reptiles
During the Triassic, diapsid reptile species overtook synapsids, somewhat mammalian reptiles that had dominated the previous period. Dinosaurs -- bipedal, fast and agile -- initially emerged in the late Triassic period, descended from reptilian archosaurs. Dinosaurs would not fully prosper until after the Triassic, surviving both the harsh conditions of the period, including low oxygen content and strenuous heat, and the late Triassic mass extinction. The late Triassic also saw the emergence of the first turtle, Proganochelys, as well as early pterosaurs, hairy flying reptiles with respiration systems mirroring those of modern birds.
Other
Mammals made their first appearance in the late Triassic period. They were fur-covered and rather small, approximately the size of a mouse. It wasn't until the end of the Cretaceous period brought the extinction of the dinosaurs that mammals increased dramatically in size. Likely nocturnal, these creatures fed on insects of the time. Though the previous era's extinction brought a loss of approximately 37 percent of all insect species, new insects appeared during the Triassic including flies, wasps, mosquitoes and ants. Amphibians, though not dominant creatures in the Triassic period, were varied in body type and adapted over the period.