Chirotherium, also known as Cheirotherium (hand-beast), is the name of a Triassic archosaur known only from fossil imprints of its tracks (trace fossils). Its tracks were first found in 1834 in red sandstone in Thuringia, Germany, dating from about 243 million years ago. This creature was probably a pseudosuchian archosaur related to the ancestors of the crocodiles. It likely belonged to a group of pseudosuchians called the rauisuchians, which were large carnivores with erect gaits. The Triassic is the oldest period of the Mesozoic Era. It encompasses a time frame between about 252 and 201 million years ago that was named for the threefold division of rocks at its type locality in central Germany, where continental redbeds and evaporites are separated by a marine limestone. Characterized by the diversification of land life, the rise of dinosaurs, and the appearance of the earliest mammals. The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 252 and 247 million years ago. Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic, which is a unit in chronostratigraphy.