The Middle Triassic is divided into the Anisian and Ladinian ages or stages.

This name is now only used for a specific unit of rock strata with approximately Middle Triassic age, found in western Europe.

[citation needed] Following the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most devastating of all mass-extinctions, life recovered slowly.

In the Middle Triassic, many groups of organisms reached higher diversity again, such as the marine reptiles (e.g. ichthyosaurs, sauropterygians, thallatosaurs), ray-finned fish and many invertebrate groups like molluscs (ammonoids, bivalves, gastropods).

[citation needed] During the Middle Triassic, there were not yet any flowering plants, but instead there were seed ferns and gymnosperms.