Guadalupian Epoch

What happened during this time?

Geophysical

• Starting from Olson's Extinction and into the early Middle Triassic, land plants exhibited large turnover of genera

Olson's Extinction

• • There is an animal extinction event at the beginning of the epoch, ~273 Ma

  • There was a sudden change between the early Permian and middle/late Permian faunas, impacting plants, marine invertebrates and tetrapods

  • Olson's Extinction represents the third highest peak of extinction rates seen in plants throughout the Paleozoic, and the number of genera fell by 25% (Cascales-Miñana et al. 2015)

Capitanian extinction event 

• • There is a probable extinction, that occurred at the end of this epoch, ~262 Ma (GSA Bulletin, 2015)

  • 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

  • The event showed a marked reduction of members of the Paleozoic fauna, but not the loss of entire major clades. 

Biological

Flora, seed-bearing

• As the Earth dries, plants with adaptations for drought (xerophytic) proliferate

• This time marks the transition from the paleophytic (spore-bearing & mesic) to the mesophytic (gymnospermous & xeric) eras of plant evolution 

• Glossopteris dominates in Gondwanaland; Cordaitales very successful in Euramerica

• Early Ginkgophytes are on the landscape, such as Tichopitys

• Cycads and Voltzialean conifers, diversify in the expanding desert ecosystems on Pangaea during this time

• Giganopterids were among the most striking and important plants of the Cathaysian flora of Sino-Malaya

• , such as the Callistophytales Seed ferns go extinct at the end of the Early Permian 

Flora, spore-bearing

• Extant clubmoss groups, such as the Lycopodiales and Selaginellales are found in the understory of some forests

• Marattialean tree ferns are become less prominet with drying of the landscape

• Sphenophyllophytes and zygopterid ferns are found in the under-story, and horsetails along rivers and wetlands

• True ferns are becoming more successful as understory plants in gymnosperm forests

• Noeggerathian progymnosperms are present, but becoming less prominent, eventually going extinct at the end of the Permian