Part of the Paleozoic Era
Carboniferous Period - Permian Period - Triassic Period
The Permian Period is the sixth, and final, period of the Paleozoic Era, and the sixth of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Permian begins at the time from which the earliest Streptognathodus isolatus conodonts are known and ends with the Permian-Triassic extinction event that would be the most devastating extinction in the planet's history, as ninety percent of aquatic species and seventy percent of terrestrial species would go extinct.
The supercontinent of Pangaea was the sole continent of the Permian Period. The giant ocean Panthalassa would consume most of the planet, though a second ocean known as the Paleo-Tethys was also sizable. A third ocean known as the Tethys Ocean, began to form during the Permian as well.
Molluscs, echinoderms, and brachiopods are abundant in the Permian marine fossil record. Terrestrial life included a wide variety of plants, fungi, arthropods, and tetrapods. Early amniotes branches off into groups ancestral of mammals, turtles, archosaurs, and lepidosaurs during this period. The most successful insect species of the Permian were primitive ancestors of cockroaches, while primitive dragonflies were the predominant aerial predators of the time. Dominant terrestrial animals included the carnivorous Dimetrodon and one of its fellow synapsids, the herbivorous Edapohosaurus. Other well-known Permian animals include Eryops and Platyhystrix.
The Permian is subdivided into three epochs: the Cisuralian, the Guadalupian, and the Lopingian.
Permian Timescale:
Permian Period - 298.9-251.902 MYA
-Cisuralian Epoch - 298.9-272.3 MYA
--Asselian Age - 298.9-295 MYA
--Sakmarian Age - 295-290.1 MYA
--Artinskian Age - 290.1-282 MYA
--Kungurian Age - 282-272.3 MYA
-Guadalupian Epoch - 272.3-258.5 MYA
--Roadian Age - 272.3-268.8 MYA
--Wordian Age - 268.8-265.1 MYA
--Capitanian Age - 265.1-258.5 MYA
-Lopingian Epoch - 258.5-251.902 MYA
--Wuchiapingian Age - 258.5-254.15 MYA
--Changhsingian Age - 254.15-251.902 MYA