Dicynodonts were a highly successful group of herbivorous therapsids that inhabited terrestrial ecosystems from the Middle Permian through the end of the Triassic periods. Permian dicynodonts are extremely abundant in African deposits, but are comparatively poorly known from the other regions of Gondwana. Here we describe a new South American dicynodont, Rastodon procurvidens gen. et sp. nov., ...

The taxonomic diversity of ammonoids, in terms of the number of taxa preserved, provides an incomplete picture of the extinction pattern during the Permian because of a strongly biased fossil record. The analysis of morphological disparity (the variety of shell shapes) is a powerful complementary tool for testing hypotheses about the selectivity of extinction and permits the recognition of thre...

Physiological research aimed at understanding current global change provides a basis for evaluating selective survivorship associated with Permo-Triassic mass extinction. Comparative physiology links paleontological and paleoenvironmental observations, supporting the hypothesis that an end-Permian trigger, most likely Siberian Trap volcanism, touched off a set of physically-linked perturbations...

We describe the first known occurrence of a Permian shark specimen preserving two temnospondyl amphibians in its digestive tract as well as the remains of an acanthodian fish, which was ingested by one of the temnospondyls. This exceptional find provides for the first time direct evidence of a vertebrate three-level food chain in the fossil record with the simultaneous preservation of three tro...

Abstract The Rhynchonellida is a major group of brachiopods that survived the “big five” mass extinctions and flourished after Permian/Triassic (P/Tr) crisis. However, phylogenetic character evolution in across P/Tr transition poorly understood. In view widespread homoplasy this order, we employ tip-dated Bayesian analysis to reconstruct relationships for late Permian–Triassic rhynchonellides. ...

Morrowan-age units in the Permian Basin appear to show a “second-order” transgression from siliciclastic fluvial-deltaic to shallow-marine and subsequently to carbonate deposition. In general, Morrowan-age siliciclastics dominate deposition in the west of the Permian Basin, while carbonate deposition dominates in the east. The predominance of carbonate facies in the east is due to a lack of sil...

Multiscale structural analysis is carried out to explore the sequence of superposed pre-Alpine chloritoid–staurolite–andalusite metamorphic assemblages in polydeformed Variscan basement upper Val Camonica, central Southalpine domain. The dominant fabric Camonica late-Variscan S2 foliation, marked by greenschist facies minerals and truncated base Permian siliciclastic sequences. intersection wit...

Low-Angle Normal Faults (LANFs) represent in the central Southern Alps area (N Italy) main structures along which Variscan basement is contact with Upper Carboniferous-Permian volcanic-sedimentary succession. Tourmalinites frequently occur LANFs, usually replacing former cataclasites. The mineralogy and chemical composition of tourmalinites point to a metasomatic origin. together high-angle fau...