At the end of the Triassic Period roughly half of Earth's species became extinct in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.
This extinction event allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant land animals.
The largest land predators at the end of the Triassic were Rauisuchia, large quadrupedal reptiles which disappeared in the extinction, paving the way for carnivorous dinosaurs to become the dominant land predators.

Dracoraptor had pointed and serrated teeth, indicating it was a meat-eater.
But the teeth were small, about one centimetre long, showing it ate small vertebrate animals.
In the early Jurassic, South Wales was a coastal area with several small islands in a warm shallow sea.
The area which is now Lavernock Point was offshore, so the cadaver of Dracoraptor had probably been washed into the sea from the land to the north.
Despite the lack of data regarding its ecology, the authors in 2016 had it tentatively illustrated as a "shore-dwelling predator and scavenger".

Dracoraptor is the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur.
Vidovic stated: "So this dinosaur starts to fill in some gaps in our knowledge about the dinosaurs that survived the Triassic extinction and gave rise to all the dinosaurs that we know from Jurassic Park, books and TV" and "Dinosaurs diversified and populated the ecological niches in the Early Jurassic."
At the end of the Triassic Period roughly half of Earth's species became extinct in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. This extinction event allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant land animals. The largest land predators at the end of the Triassic were Rauisuchia, large quadrupedal reptiles which disappeared in the extinction, paving the way for carnivorous dinosaurs to become the dominant land predators.
Dracoraptor had pointed and serrated teeth, indicating it was a meat-eater. But the teeth were small, about one centimetre long, showing it ate small vertebrate animals. In the early Jurassic, South Wales was a coastal area with several small islands in a warm shallow sea. The area which is now Lavernock Point was offshore, so the cadaver of Dracoraptor had probably been washed into the sea from the land to the north. Despite the lack of data regarding its ecology, the authors in 2016 had it tentatively illustrated as a "shore-dwelling predator and scavenger".
Dracoraptor is the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur. Vidovic stated: "So this dinosaur starts to fill in some gaps in our knowledge about the dinosaurs that survived the Triassic extinction and gave rise to all the dinosaurs that we know from Jurassic Park, books and TV" and "Dinosaurs diversified and populated the ecological niches in the Early Jurassic." 
Dracoraptor