Evidence from South Africa for a protracted end-Permian extinction on land
Pia A. Viglietti, Roger Benson, Roger M. H. Smith, Jennifer Botha, Christian F. Kammerer, Zaituna Skosan, Elize Butler, Annelise Crean, Bobby Eloff, Sheena Kaal, Joël Mohoi, William Molehe, Nolusindiso Mtalana, Sibusiso Mtungata, Nthaopa Ntheri, Thabang Ntsala, John Nyaphuli, Paul October, Georgina Skinner, M. W. STRONG, Hedi Stummer, Frederik P. Wolvaardt, Kenneth D. Angielczyk
Abstract
Significance Mass extinctions permanently altered life’s evolutionary trajectory five times in Earth’s history, and the end-Permian extinction was the greatest of these biotic crises. South Africa’s unparalleled fossil record provides a window into mass extinction dynamics on land. We analyze a unique dataset comprising hundreds of precisely positioned tetrapod fossils, identifying a protracted (∼1 Ma) extinction. This contrasts with the rapid marine extinction, demonstrating that the effects of biotic crises vary prominently among Earth’s surface environments. We also identify the blooming of “disaster taxa” before the main extinction rather than in its aftermath as assumed previously. These changes contributed to breaking the incumbency of previously dominant mammal relatives (synapsids) after the extinction and to the Triassic rise of crocodile- and dinosaur-line archosaurs.