Page "Mesozoic" Paragraph 11

The Triassic was generally dry, a trend that began in the late Carboniferous, and highly seasonal, especially in the interior of Pangaea.

Low sea levels may have also exacerbated temperature extremes.

With its high specific heat capacity, water acts as a temperature-stabilizing heat reservoir, and land areas near large bodies of water — especially the oceans — experience less variation in temperature.

Because much of the land that constituted Pangaea was distant from the oceans, temperatures fluctuated greatly, and the interior of Pangaea probably included expansive areas of desert.

Abundant evidence of red beds and evaporites such as halite support these conclusions.