What was the Permian Period like? What creatures thrived there before the period came to an abrupt end? Thanks to efforts by an international research team, 17 years of fossils collected in Africa may help us paint a better picture of this time period before the Great Dying event altered life on our planet.
“This mass extinction was nothing short of a cataclysm for life on Earth, and changed the course of evolution,” said Christian Sidor, a University of Washington professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, in a press release.
“But we lack a comprehensive view of which species survived, which didn’t, and why. The fossils we have collected in Tanzania and Zambia will give us a more global perspective on this unprecedented period in our planet’s natural history,” Sidor continued in the press release.
The team’s findings, published in a series of 14 papers in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, indicate that animals such as burrowing foragers, saber-toothed predators, and a large, salamander-like creature called Permian Africa home.
Read More: Warm Waters Helped Some Species Thrive After Earth’s Great Dying
Life and Death in the Permian
The Permian Period began 299 million years ago and ended 252 million years ago, during the mass extinction event known as The Great Dying, in which 70 percent of terrestrial species and 81 percent of marine life became extinct.
According to the study, the Permian marked the endpoint of the Paleozoic Era. During this era, life began to emerge from the sea and evolve to live on land. By the time life reached the Permian, animals such as amphibians and reptiles were thriving in environments ranging from arid valleys to early forests.
However, during the Great Dying, those ecosystems were eradicated, life was extinguished, and the Mesozoic Era began, leading to the first dinosaurs, flowering plants, birds, and eventually mammals.
Much of what researchers knew about the shift from the Permian and Paleozoic to the Mesozoic Era came from a specific place — the Karoo Basin in South Africa. However, it appears that paleontological sites in Tanzania and Zambia may offer a better understanding of these shifting times.
Remnants of the Great Dying
For this study, Sidor, Kenneth Angielczyk, curator of paleomammalogy at the Field Museum, and the rest of the team uncovered fossils from three basins in Southern Africa: the Luangwa Basin in eastern Zambia, the Mid-Zambezi Basin in southern Zambia, and the Ruhuhu Basin in southern Tanzania.
“These parts of Zambia and Tanzania contain absolutely beautiful fossils from the Permian,” said Sidor in the press release. “They are giving us an unprecedented view of life on land leading up to the mass extinction.”
During their research, the team identified several organisms, including new species of dicynodonts — a tiny burrowing, reptile-like herbivore that would evolve to have tusks and a beak-like snout. These creatures first emerged on the scene during the mid-Permian, and by the time of the Great Dying, they were the primary plant-eating species.
The team also identified a new species known as gorgonopsians, a saber-toothed predator, and a new temnospondyl species — a large salamander-like amphibian.
“We can now compare two different geographic regions of Pangea and see what was going on both before and after the end-Permian mass extinction,” said Sidor in the press release. “We can really start to ask questions about who survived and who didn’t.”
According to the press release, “All fossils collected by the team will be returned to Tanzania and Zambia after researchers have completed their analyses.”
Read More: Antarctica Was Oasis for Life During “Great Dying” 250 Million Years Ago
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Memoir 23: Vertebrate Evolution in the Permian Rift Basins of Tanzania and Zambia
