Microvertebrates from across the Triassic- Jurassic boundary

Small-bodied vertebrate species numerically dominate modern ecosystems, representing the majority of alpha diversity and occupying nearly every ecological niche. Understanding their role in deep time is essential for reconstructing past ecosystems, but is hindered by strong preservational and collection biases. This problem is especially evident in South Africa’s Elliot Formation (Late Triassic–Early Jurassic), famous for its giant sauropodomorph dinosaurs but with a little-known smaller-bodied fauna. As a result, our understanding of biodiversity during this time interval remains very incomplete. Two newly discovered fossil sites from South Africa preserves hundreds of specimens that lie along the Triassic -Jurassic boundary, allowing for investigation of faunal turnover and the early radiation of Jurassic vertebrate groups.