Significant Permian events

Paleozoic Era, also spelled Palaeozoic, major interval of geologic time that began 541 million years ago with the Cambrian explosion, an extraordinary diversification of marine animals, and ended about 252 million years ago with the end-Permian extinction, the greatest extinction event in Earth history.

It began with the creation of the Earth around 4.6 billion years ago. 5 major events occurred during this era: (1) the formation of the Sun and light, (2) the creation of the Earth, (3) the creation of the atmosphere through volcanic out-gassing, (4) the creation of the oceans, and (5) the creation of life.

• Pangaea. During the Permian Period, all the world’s landmasses were joined into a single continent that spread from pole to pole.
• Rise of Amniotes.
• Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time.

The Paleozoic Era ended with the largest extinction event in the history of Earth, the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The effects of this catastrophe were so devastating that it took life on land 30 million years into the Mesozoic Era to recover. Recovery of life in the sea may have been much faster.

The Paleozoic Era, which ran from about 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago, was a time of great change on Earth. The era began with the breakup of one supercontinent and the formation of another. Plants became widespread. And the first vertebrate animals colonized land.

fishes

The Paleozoic Era is one of the most important geological divisions of our planet’s geochronological timescale, as it marks the extensive evolution of life, along with the largest mass extinction.

Life during the Silurian: Coral reefs became widespread during the Silurian. The first true fish became common during the Silurian. Geology of the Silurian: Many of the mountain chains common on Earth today started forming during the Silurian.

Silurian strata have provided likely ascomycete fossils (a group of fungi), as well as remains of the first arachnids and centipedes. Perhaps most striking of all biological events in the Silurian was the evolution of vascular plants, which have been the basis of terrestrial ecology since their appearance.

During the Silurian Period, the climate was generally warm and stable, in contrast to the glaciers of the late Ordovician and the extreme heat of the Devonian. The first known plant to have an upright stalk, and vascular tissue for water transport, was the Cooksonia of the mid-Silurian deltas.

The Carboniferous Period is famous for its vast swamp forests, such as the one depicted here. Such swamps produced the coal from which the term Carboniferous, or “carbon-bearing,” is derived. The term “Carboniferous” comes from England, in reference to the rich deposits of coal that occur there.

Carboniferous coal was produced by bark-bearing trees that grew in vast lowland swamp forests. The growth of these forests removed huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, leading to a surplus of oxygen. Atmospheric oxygen levels peaked around 35 percent, compared with 21 percent today.

Land animals included primitive amphibians, reptiles (which first appeared in the Upper Carboniferous), spiders, millipedes, land snails, scorpions, enormous dragonflies, and more than 800 kinds of cockroaches.

Paleozoic

Carboniferous amphibians were diverse and common by the middle of the period, more so than they are today; some were as long as 6 meters, and those fully terrestrial as adults had scaly skin.

Reptiles arose about 300 million years ago, and they replaced amphibians as the dominant land-dwelling animal following the Permian Extinction. Reptiles produce an egg that contains nutrients within a protective shell; unlike amphibians, they do not have to return to the water to reproduce.