Capitanian Age

The Capitanian (265–260 Ma) is the third and last stage of the Middle Permian occurring after the Wordian, and before the Wuchiapingian.

What happened during this time?

There is a probable extinction, that occurred at the end of this epoch, ~262 Ma (GSA Bulletin, 2015)
The event showed a marked reduction of members of the Paleozoic fauna, but not the loss of entire major clades.
This extinction is manifested at higher latitudes. This extinction has a small effect on the plant groupings at the time
Smaller, but still powerful: 34% genus-level extinction in the seas (comparable to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction!) and fairly powerful on land
This crisis coincided with an intensification of oxygen depletion, implicating anoxia in the extinction scenario.
The widespread and near-total loss of carbonates also suggests a role for acidification in the crisis.

Flora

Glossopteris dominates in Gondwanaland; ginkgophytes and Cordaitales are also success groups, with ferns adapting to the understory and horsetails along rivers and other wetlands
Cycads and voltzialean conifers, which appear in the Carboniferous, diversify in the expanding desert ecosystems on Pangaea during this time
- Many of these gymnosperms appear in the Late Carboniferous, but are beginning to dominate in this new xeric landscape
- The same pattern is seen in the late Mesozoic era, where modern flowering plants appear long before the extinction of the dinosaurs and their contemporaries
Several established terrestrial biomes (see chart, right):
- Tropical summer wet: Ginkgoes, Conifers, and Cordaites
- Tropical ever-wet: Ginkgoes, Pteridosperms, Equisetophytes, Marattioid, and Zygopterid ferns
- Subtropical desert: Ginkgoes, Conifers, and Cycads
- Warm temperate: Ginkgoes, Cordaites, Pteridosperms, Equisetophytes, Marattioid and Zygopterid ferns, and Glossopterids
- Mid-latitude desert: no fossil preserved
- Cool temperate: Cordaites, Equisetophytes, Marattioid and Zygopterid ferns, Glossopterids, and Lycopsids
- Cold temperate: Cordaites, Equisetophytes, and Glossopterids