The document summarizes information about the Permian extinction event that occurred approximately 252 million years ago. It describes the extinction of over 90% of species on land and sea, including synapsids, sauropsids, ammonites, brachiopods, sharks, and rays in the seas as well as insects and reptiles on land. Potential causes that are discussed include severe volcanism, environmental changes from the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea, asteroid impact, or a combination of these factors. However, the exact cause remains unclear due to lack of evidence over the past 250 million years.

1. Jasmine Matevosyan
Geology 103
Permian extinction

2. • Events
o Formation of Pangaea at the end of the Paleozoic Era
• super continent consisting of all the Earth’s landmasses
o Alleghenian Orogeny
• The central and southern parts of the Appalachian mobile belt folding and moving
toward the craton.
o Hercynian Orogeny
• Greatest deformation along the Hercynian mobile belt from the initial contact
between Laurasia and Gondwana.
- Plants: Gymnosperms diverse and abundant
(Monroe & Wicander, 2015)
Characteristics of Permian Period

3. • Also known as the Great Dying, the End Permian or the Great Permian
Extinction
• 250 million years ago
• 90-96% of land and marine species went extinct
• No class of life was spared from the devastation. Trees, plants, lizards, proto-
mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and microbes -- all were nearly wiped out
(NASA, 2002).
Overview

4. Chart

5. • 90 percent of the planet's species died
• 70 percent of the land's reptile, amphibian, insect, and plants species went
extinct
• > 5% animal species in the seas survived
• On land less than 1/3 of the large animal species survived.
• Nearly all the trees died
• (Ward, 2001)
Outcome: extinction

6. Land
Animals
Synapsids
Sauropsids
Marine
Life
Land Animals
• Synapsids:
o skulls with a single temporal opening
o thought to be the lineage that eventually led to
mammals
• Sauropsids
o two skull openings
o the ancestors of the reptiles
Marine life
(Based on Fossils of the shallower coastal waters
around the Pangaea continental shelf)
o Ammonites
o Brachiopods
o Sharks
o Rays
o lobe-finned and spiny fish
Animals

7. • Sediments containing fossils from
the end of the Permian are rare and
often inaccessible.
• Primarily found in Cape Town,
South Africa, in a scrubland known
as the Karoo.
• Plants were also faced massive
extinction. Evidence of extinct
forests can be seen in the Italian
Alps.
(Hoffman)
Outcome: remains

8. Paramblypterus duvernoyi
Ray fish
Early Permian (~280 million years ago)
Apateon pedestris (a Permian tetrapod)
amphibian
Lower Permian (Asselian Age - 290 million years
ago)
Remains

9. Extinct Species
Type and
percentage
Invertebrates
Fusulinids
Rugose
Tabulate coral
Bryozoan
Brachiopod
Trilobites
Blastoids
Marine
96%
Vertebrates
Acanthodians
Placoderms
Pelycosaurs
Land
70%
Insects
33%
Extinction
(Monroe & Wicander, 2015)

10. • According to NASA, possible causes include: severe volcanism, a nearby
supernova, environmental changes wrought by the formation of a super-
continent, the devastating impact of a large asteroid -- or some combination
of these.
• The problem with finding a definite answer or cause: “The trail has grown
cold over the last quarter billion years; much of the evidence has been
destroyed”, (NASA, 2002).
Possible cause 1

11. • Resembles the world after the
Permian extinction.
• It’s name comes from the coal
burned by nearby power plants
• Researchers claim the same acid
rain that destroyed the forest in the
black triangle. The difference is the
addition of a massive release of
volcanic gases during the Permian
extinction.
Similar signs: The black triangle
The Black Triangle gets its name from the coal
burned by nearby power plants in northern
Czech Republic, a few miles from the German
and Polish borders (Hoffman).

12. • Bagley, M. (2014, February 7). Permian Period: Climate, Animals & Plants. Retrieved July 17, 2016,
from http://www.livescience.com/43219-permian-period-climate-animals-plants.html
• Hoffman, H. J. (n.d.). Permian Extinction Article, Mass Extinction Information, Park Tourism Facts
-- National Geographic. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/permian-extinction/#page=1
• International Commission on Stratigraphy, 2004, International stratigraphic chart:
http://www.stratigraphy.org/.
• Monroe, J. S. & Wicander, R. (2015). The Changing Earth: Exploring Geology and Evolution 7th ed.
Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
• NASA (2002). The Great Dying. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from http://science.nasa.gov/science-
news/science-at-nasa/2002/28jan_extinction/
• Virtual Fossil Museum. (n.d.). Permian Fossils. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Paleobiology/PermianFossils.htm
• Ward, P. (2001). Permian-Triassic Extinction. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_02.html
References