The Permian Period, from 284 to 245 million years ago, is the youngest division of the Paleozoic Era. During the Permian, most of the continents we know today were assembled into one enormous land mass called Pangaea. The end of the Permian is marked by evidence of one of the largest mass exinctions Earth has ever experienced. Marine invertebrates were the hardest hit, and the great forests of tree ferns were wiped out. This set the stage for dinosaurs and more modern types of plants to begin their rise to power in the next era of geologic time, the Mesozoic Era.
Permian features of the United States:
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