The Permian-Triassic transitionhistorical review of the most important ecological crises with special emphasis on the Iberian Peninsula and Western-Central Europe

Abstract

One of the most important climatic and biological crises of the history of the Earth occurred 250 m.a. ago, during the transition from the Permian to the Triassic. During the Permian, all of the continental blocks were covering one hemisphere forming the Pangea supercontinent, while the other was covered by the Panthalasa ocean. General conditions for living on land were very precarious. The exuberant vegetation of the Carboniferous period had disappeared almost completely, as well as the large insects that sheltered there and many amphibians that lived in the flooded areas. There is, however, less information about the immense ocean, although the marine fauna was very abundant and varied. The landscapes of Pangea were very varied as it comprised very diverse climatic regions. At the polar areas there were enormous ice caps while at mid and tropical latitudes there were hotter and more temperate climates. Huge areas of the immense continent, far from any marine influence, were however very arid. On the plains, ephemeral, slow moving courses of water deposited their alluvium, while at the coastal regions, strong tides left lagoons where saline deposits were formed. Volcanic activity was important as can be seen by the great outflows of basalts and andesites as well as the pyroclasts and ashes interbedded in the deposits of the Permian. With the start of the Mesozoic, in the Triassic, the world started to take the shape we see today. Pangea started to crack and break up heralding an important palaeogeographical change. At the end of the Permian, between 85%-95% of marine and land species had disappeared and the life forms that characterized the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic began to develop. Credence today is given to the theory that this biological crises was due to dramatic climatic change caused by the drastic appearance of volcanic eruptions that released enormous lava flows and projected clouds of dust and toxic gas into the atmosphere. The marked regression of the marine waters at the end of the Permian also contributed to this enormous extinction and the subsequent renovation of the fauna. General perturbations related to anoxia and change in temperature and biological productivity, are shown by many geochemical studies in marine sediments, in the stratigraphical series from those areas where there was continuity in sedimentation during the Permian-Triassic transition. Extinction and later renewal is very evident in the flora of the continental series. At the beginning of the Triassic all traces of vegetation had disappeared in huge areas and it is not possible to find some sign of recuperation in the sediments (only in the form of charfungus spores) until the end of the Scytian (Lower Triassic), as the return of the conifers did not happen until the Anisian (Middle Triassic).