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<\/a><\/p>\nAn artistic rendering of an evening approximately 252 million years ago during the Late Permian epoch in the Luangwa Basin of Zambia. The scene includes several saber-toothed gorgonopsians and beaked dicynodonts. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe end-Permian mass extinction was nothing short of a cataclysm for life on Earth, and changed the course of evolution,\u201d said University of Washington\u2019s Professor Christian Sidor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we lack a comprehensive view of which species survived, which didn\u2019t, and why.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fossils we have collected in Tanzania and Zambia will give us a more global perspective on this unprecedented period in our planet\u2019s natural history.\u201d<\/p>\n
All new fossils were excavated in three basins across southern Africa: the Ruhuhu Basin in southern Tanzania, the Luangwa Basin in eastern Zambia and the Mid-Zambezi Basin in southern Zambia.<\/p>\n
Most were discovered by team members on multiple, month-long excavation trips to the region over the past 17 years.<\/p>\n
Others were analyses of specimens dug up decades prior that had been stored in museum collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese parts of Zambia and Tanzania contain absolutely beautiful fossils from the Permian,\u201d Professor Sidor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are giving us an unprecedented view of life on land leading up to the mass extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Permian period is the endpoint of what paleontologists call the Paleozoic Era.<\/p>\n
During this time, animal life \u2014 which evolved first in Earth\u2019s oceans \u2014 began to colonize land and complex terrestrial ecosystems developed.<\/p>\n
By the Permian, a diverse array of amphibian and reptile-like creatures roamed environments ranging from early forests to arid valleys.<\/p>\n
The end-Permian mass extinction obliterated many of these ecosystems and ushered in the Mesozoic Era, which saw the evolution of dinosaurs, as well as the first birds, flowering plants and mammals.<\/p>\n
For decades, scientists\u2019 best understanding of the Permian, the end-Permian mass extinction and the start of the Mesozoic came from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, which contains a near-complete fossil record of periods before and after the mass extinction.<\/p>\n
But beginning in the 1930s, paleontologists realized that basins in Tanzania and Zambia contain fossil records of this time range that are almost as pristine as the Karoo\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The excavation trips by the authors represent the largest analysis to date of the region\u2019s fossil record from before and after the end-Permian mass extinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of specimens we\u2019ve found in Zambia and Tanzania is so high and their condition is so exquisite that we can make species-level comparisons to what paleontologists have found in South Africa,\u201d Professor Sidor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know of no better place on Earth for getting sufficient detail of this time period to make such detailed conclusions and comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n