An astronomical timescale for the Permian-Triassic mass extinction reveals a two-step, million-year-long terrestrial crisis in South China

Severest crisis overlooked—Worst disruption of terrestrial environments postdates the Permian–Triassic mass extinction

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian-Triassic boundary extinction by about 500...

Temnospondyl ontogeny and phylogeny, a window into terrestrial ecosystems during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction

Temnospondyls are the most species-rich group of early amphibians, but specieslevel phylogenetic analyses of this large clade have so far only incompletely sampled the group. This study represents the largest and most comprehensive species-level phylogenetic study of Temnospondyli, sampling 99 taxa for 297 morphological characters from all seven continents through nearly 170 million years of th...

Carbon cycle perturbation expressed in terrestrial Permian–Triassic boundary sections in South China

Provincialization of terrestrial faunas following the end-Permian mass extinction.

In addition to their devastating effects on global biodiversity, mass extinctions have had a long-term influence on the history of life by eliminating dominant lineages that suppressed ecological change. Here, we test whether the end-Permian mass extinction (252.3 Ma) affected the distribution of tetrapod faunas within the southern hemisphere and apply quantitative methods to analyze four compo...

Current perspectives on the Permian–Triassic boundary and end-Permian mass extinction: Preface

The end-Permian mass extinction is now robustly dated at 252.6 ± 0.2 Ma (U–Pb) and the Permian–Triassic (P–T) GSSP level is dated by interpolation at 252.5 Ma. An isotopic geochronological timescale for the Late Permian–Early Triassic, based on recent accurate high-precision U–Pb single zircon dating of volcanic ashes, together with calibrated conodont zonation schemes, is presented. The durati...