New post series: Randomnimity
Why? Cause. Pointless? Mostly. Cause of universal entropy? Likely.

First post: Leaves are tree feathers

Come slosh in the permian surf (we all know how that ended)

#randomnimity #philosophy #pumpkins #pointless #permian

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-whale-filter-feeding-prehistoric-marine-reptile.html

Whale like filter-feeding discovered in prehistoric marine reptile

#triassic #permian #massextinction #evolution

I'm watching and listening to naturalist Chris Packham describe the sea floor during the late Permian extinction as a "fetid bed of slime". And that is exactly what it must have been like 250m years ago, when 96% of marine life vanished off the face of the Earth forever.

#BBCEarth #ChrisPackham #TheGreatDying #Permian

Exceptions to the temperature–size rule: no Lilliput Effect in end-Permian ostracods from Aras Valley (NW Iran)

Body size changes of ostracods in the Aras Valley section are evaluated in response to the drastic warming during the end-Permian mass extinction at three taxonomic levels: class, order, species. Individual species to instars do not show dwarfing similar to some experimental studies.

https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12667

#paleobiology #paleontology #climate #ostracod #fossils #Permian #Triassic

Postcranial anatomy of the gorgonopsid synapsid Gorgonops torvus from the late #Permian of South Africa: https://peerj.com/articles/15378/ via @PeerJ #Paleontology #Paleobiology #EvolutionaryStudies

Nice study using sulfur isotopes in Marcasite to track end-Permian ocean acidification: "ocean acidification may have been a major environmental factor contributing to the end-Permian marine ecosystem collapse" #Permian #MassExtinction https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818123001030

#African #FossilFriday

The survivors of the #Permian #Extinction I mentioned last week included the #archosaurs, the lineage of #reptiles that includes #crocodiles, #dinosaurs, and #birds. This #fossil from the subsequent #Triassic is from a very close #dinosaur relative. Found in the #Luangwa Valley of #Zambia 🇿🇲, it was named Lutungutali sitwensis, #Bemba for "high hip" and named in honor of the village of Sitwe.

Figure from Peecook et al. 2013

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2013.755991

#African #FossilFriday

Southern #Africa is one of the most important places in the world for understanding the #Permian, the period that ended with the largest #MassExtinction in #Earth's history. The valleys of the #Luangwa and #Zambezi in #Zambia 🇿🇲 are particularly rich in Permian fossils, including this #gorgonopsian on display at the #UniversityOfWashington's #BurkeMuseum. These impressive animals are #therapsids, close relatives of mammals and perhaps the first #sabertooths.

The Permian Basin is a large sedimentary basin, located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. It is so named because it has one of the world's thickest deposits of rocks from the Permian geologic period.

The Permian Basin is also a major source of potassium salts (potash), which are mined from bedded deposits of sylvite and langbeinite in the Salado Formation of #Permian age.

from Wikipedia, license: CC BY-SA 3.0

Here is a #map of the Permian Basin 312 million years ago:

Here is a 🧶#longThread about past #climateChange:
- #oilAndGas and #Permian
- tropical warmth until the Chicxulub impact #66Mya
- human separation around #4Mya
- the last ice age peak about 20,000 years ago: #20kya
⸺
#learn #enjoy #joy #easyReading #simpleEnglish #geology #maps #geobiology #ecology #biogeochemistry #energy

#ecosystem collapse ‘inevitable’ unless #wildlife losses reversed

Scientists studying the #Permian-#Triassic #MassExtinction find ecosystems can suddenly tip over
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/24/ecosystem-collapse-wildlife-losses-permian-triassic-mass-extinction-study
#ClimateCrisis #ItsAllOurFault

Today's "I may be small, but my family will do great things!" not-quite-a-#dinosaur.

#Dromomeron wasn't as tiny as the pen implies (unless that's a really big pen!) but it wasn't large either: about a meter long, of which half was tail, and the whole thing lightly built. You could pick it up and cuddle it, and you know you'd want to.

Probably not on the dinosaurian lineage, but close—one of a number of #avemetatarsalians living in the mid-to-late #Triassic, 220-210 million years ago (mya). Biodiversity had barely recovered from the end-Permian "Great Dying" 250 mya when the climate threw another curveball in the form of the #Carnian #Pluvial Episode 234-232 mya, a Great Flood that makes "of Biblical proportions" seem kind of cute by comparison. The early Triassic biota had looked more like that of the late #Permian, only vastly sparser: it was later in the period, after the rains washed the remnants away, that dinosaurs and their close relatives began their rise.

Into this relatively empty world came Dromomeron and many other avemetatarsalians, all trying to fill open niches along with the crocodilians to round out the archosaur family tree. Only the dinosaurs and pterosaurs succeeded in the long term, but many others had a good run: the Dromomeron genus contains three named species and there were probably more.

Like all the rest, it wasn't a "failure" or a "dead end," except in the sense that everything is a dead end eventually. See it now not as bones frozen in rock, but a thriving animal, warm and active and alive. We can only hope to leave such a legacy.

(Art by Gabriel Ugueto. If you don’t know his work, you should.)

Today's "I may be small, but my family will do great things!" not-quite-a-#dinosaur.

#Dromomeron wasn't as tiny as the pen implies (unless that's a really big pen!) but it wasn't large either: about a meter long, of which half was tail, and the whole thing lightly built. You could pick it up and cuddle it, and you know you'd want to.

Probably not on the dinosaurian lineage, but close—one of a number of #avemetatarsalians living in the mid-to-late #Triassic, 220-210 million years ago (mya). Biodiversity had barely recovered from the end-Permian "Great Dying" 250 mya when the climate threw another curveball in the form of the #Carnian #Pluvial Episode 234-232 mya, a Great Flood that makes "of Biblical proportions" seem kind of cute by comparison. The early Triassic biota had looked much like that of the late #Permian, only vastly sparser: it was later in the period, after the rains washed the remnants away, that dinosaurs and their close relatives began their rise.

Into this relatively empty world came Dromomeron and many other avemetatarsalians, all trying to fill open niches along with the crocodilians to round out the archosaur family tree. Only the dinosaurs and pterosaurs succeeded in the long term, but many others had a good run: the Dromomeron genus contains three named species and there were probably more.

Like all the rest, it wasn't a "failure" or a "dead end," except in the sense that everything is a dead end eventually. See it now not as bones frozen in rock, but a thriving animal, warm and active and alive. We can only hope to leave such a legacy.

(Art by Gabriel Ugueto. If you don’t know his work, you should.)

ously thought

Discovery challenges understanding of how quickly life recovered from the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history

About 250 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed over 80 per cent of the planet's species. In the aftermath, scientists believe that life on earth was dominated by simple species for up to 10 million years before more complex ecosystems could evolve.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230209224309.htm

#permian #triassic #massextinction #evolution

The spaniel and I standing on the Permian, just below the Permian-Triassic boundary (and mass extinction event).
Austinmer Beach, New South Wales.
#geology #permian #Spaniels #sydney #earthscience

#1️⃣ 0️⃣ #FossilDisasters

YET MORE Bloomberg reporting. This time a #methane plume apparently linked to APA Corp. facilities in the New Mexico #permian basin.

Oh and there's this >> Neither the NM authorities nor the company were aware of the plume prior to being contacted by the reporter!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/new-mexico-investigates-methane-cloud-spotted-by-satellite

And, for the paleoentomologists, here is the list of insects (again, the pictures of the supposed fossils are no help in the interpretation). #entomology #xinjiang #china #permian #geology #insects
2/2

end-Permian volcanic mercury reached all around the planet at the time of the mass extinction 👇
#Permian #PermianTriassic #MassExtinction #Hg #Mercury
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35272-8

The Latest #Permian Mass #Extinction (#LPME) was the largest extinction in #Earth’s history to date, killing between 80-90% of life on the #planet
#EarthScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2023/01/en01262301.html

A new paper by Poschmann & Schindler 2023 describes specimens of the fossil clam shrimp, Palaeolimnadiopsis obenaueri (Guthörl, 1931) with the impressions of eggs. #arthropoda #crustacea #branchiopoda #paleontology #Palaeontology #fossil #Permian #Germany #spinicaudata