During the Triassic much of Scotland remained in desert conditions with higher ground in the Highlands and Southern Uplands providing sediments to the surrounding basins via flash floods. In Scotland it is virtually impossible to identify in the strata the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic. As mentioned before the desert deposits of the Permian ad the Triassic are collectively regarded as composing the New Red Sandstone. These desert were home to early dinosaurs and early mammal-like reptiles such as the 0.35m long Rhynchosaurus or the 1 metre long Cheirotherium. In the sandstones deposited around Elgin fossils of Elginia have been found. This was a 0.75 metre long reptile that lived in the late Permian early Triassic. These reptiles probably lived around water courses with dune fields in between. At Golspie on the north western shore late Triassic sandstone pass up into early Jurassic fresh-water conglomerates.

Further south actual fossils were very poorly preserved in these desert conditions but early reptile tracks have been found in a number of localities near Dumfries. 

Scotland with it desert conditions in the Permian and Triassic is not the best place to study the fossils of the time. However in other parts of the world the fossil record shows evidence for the biggest mass extinction of all time at the end of the Permian. This caused major changes in fauna and flora and about 95% of all life was extinguished, thus marking the end of the Palaeozoic Era. The Triassic period sees the start of the Mesozoic Era with its new reptiles and early mammal groups and the fast evolving ammonites in the seas of the Jurassic

As the sea levels began to rise the climatic conditions became less arid.