Abstract
Synapsids play a prominent role in research on the end-Permian mass extinction. The majority of data on the effects and severity of this extinction in the terrestrial realm is derived from the fossil record of the Russian fore-Urals and the South African Karoo Basin. A new locality preserving an important Permo-Triassic boundary layer from the Karoo, Nooitgedacht 68, is introduced. Additionally, a study of the relationship between exposed rock outcrop in the Karoo Basin and synapsid diversity is introduced.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abdala, F., & Ribeiro, A. M. (2010). Distribution and diversity patterns of Triassic cynodonts (Therapsida, Cynodontia) in Gondwana. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 286, 202–217.
Angielczyk, K. D., & Rubidge, B. S. (2009). The Permian dicynodon Colobodectes cluveri (Therapsida, Anomodontia), with notes on its ontogeny and stratigraphic range in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29, 1162–1173.
Angielczyk, K. D., & Rubidge, B. S. (2013). Skeletal morphology, phylogenetic relationships, and stratigraphic range of Eosimops newtoni Broom, 1921, a pylaecephalid dicynodont (Therapsida, Anomodontia) from the Middle Permian of South Africa. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 11, 189–229.
Angielczyk, K. D., & Walsh, M. L. (2008). Patterns in the evolution of nares size and secondary palate length in anomodont therapsids (Synapsida): Implications for hypoxia as a cause for end-Permian terrestrial vertebrate extinctions. Journal of Paleontology, 82, 528–542.
Angielczyk, K. D., Roopnarine, P. D., & Wang, S. C. (2005). Modeling the role of primary productivity disruption in end-Permian extinctions, Karoo Basin, South Africa. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 30, 16–23.
Atayman, S., Rubidge, B. S., & Abdala, F. (2009). Taxonomic re-evaluation of tapinocephalid dinocephalians. Palaeontologia Africana, 44, 87–90.
Barrett, P. M., McGowan, A. J., & Page, V. (2009). Dinosaur diversity and the rock record. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 2667–2674.
Becker, L., Poreda, R. J., Hunt, A. G., Bunch, T. E., & Rampino, M. R. (2001). Impact event at the Permian-Triassic boundary: Evidence from extraterrestrial noble gases in fullerenes. Science, 291, 1530–1533.
Benson, R. B. J., & Mannion, P. D. (2012). Multi-variate models are essential for understanding vertebrate diversification in deep time. Biology Letters, 8, 127–130.
Benson, R. B. J., Butler, R. J., Lindgren, J., & Smith, A. S. (2010). Palaeodiversity of Mesozoic marine reptiles: Mass extinctions and temporal heterogeneity in geologic megabiases affecting vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277, 829–834.
Benton, M. J., Tverdokhlebov, V. P., & Surkov, M. V. (2004). Ecosystem remodelling among vertebrates at the Permian-Triassic boundary in Russia. Nature, 432, 97–100.
Benton, M. J., Dunhill, A. M., Lloyd, G. T., & Marx, F. G. (2011). Assessing the quality of the fossil record: Insights from vertebrates. In A. J. McGowan & A. B. Smith (Eds.), Comparing the geological and fossil records: Implications for biodiversity studies (Vol. 358, pp. 63–94). London: Geological Society (Special publications).
Bernard, E. L., Ruta, M., Tarver, J. E., & Benton, M. J. (2010). The fossil record of early tetrapods: Worker effort and the end-Permian mass extinction. Acta Palaeontologia Polonica, 55, 229–239.
Botha, J., & Smith, R. M. H. (2006). Rapid vertebrate recuperation in the Karoo Basin of South Africa following the end-Permian extinction. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 45, 502–514.
Botha, J., & Smith, R. M. H. (2007). Lystrosaurus species composition across the Permo-Triassic boundary of South Africa. Lethaia, 40, 125–137.
Botha-Brink, J., & Angielczyk, K. D. (2010). Do extraordinarily high growth rates in Permo-Triassic dicynodonts (Therapsida, Anomodontia) explain their success before and after the end-Permian extinction? Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 160, 341–365.
Botha-Brink, J., Abdala, F., & Chinsamy-Turan, A. (2012). The radiation and osteohistology of nonmammaliaform cynodonts. In A. Chinsamy-Turan (Ed.), Forerunners of mammals: Radiation, histology, biology (pp. 223–246). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Botha-Brink, J., Huttenlocker, A. K., & Modesto, S. P. (2013). Vertebrate paleontology of Nooigedacht 68: A Lystrosaurus maccaigi-rich Permo-Triassic boundary locality in South Africa. In C. F. Kammerer, K. D. Angielczyk, & J. Fröbisch (Eds.), Early evolutionary history of the Synapsida (pp. 289–304). Dordrecht: Springer.
Bottjer, D. J., Clapham, M. E., Fraiser, M. L., & Powers, C. M. (2008). Understanding mechanisms for the end-Permian mass extinction and the protracted Early Triassic aftermath and recovery. GSA Today, 18, 4–10.
Butler, R. J., Barrett, P. M., Nowbath, S., & Upchurch, P. (2009). Estimating the effects of the rock record on pterosaur diversity patterns: Implications for hypotheses of bird/pterosaur competitive replacement. Paleobiology, 35, 432–446.
Butler, R. J., Benson, R. J., Carrano, M. T., Mannion, P. D., & Upchurch, P. (2011). Sea level, dinosaur diversity and sampling biases: Investigating the ‘common cause’ hypothesis in the terrestrial realm. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 278, 1165–1170.
Camp, J. A. (2010). Morphological variation and disparity in Lystrosaurus (Therapsida: Dicynodontia). Unpublished MS thesis, University of Iowa.
Fröbisch, J. (2008). Global taxonomic diversity of anomodonts (Tetrapoda, Therapsida) and the terrestrial rock record across the Permian-Triassic boundary. PLoS One, 3, e3733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003733.
Fröbisch, J. (2009). Composition and similarity of global anomodont-bearing tetrapod faunas. Earth Science Reviews, 95, 119–175.
Fröbisch, J. (2013). Synapsid diversity and the rock record in the Permian-Triassic Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup), South Africa. In C. F. Kammerer, K. D. Angielczyk, & J. Fröbisch (Eds.), Early evolutionary history of the Synapsida (pp. 305–319). Dordrecht: Springer.
Fröbisch, J., Angielczyk, K. D., & Sidor, C. A. (2010). The Triassic dicynodont Kombuisia (Synapsida, Anomodontia) from Antarctica, a refuge for terrestrial tetrapods during and after the end-Permian extinction. Naturwissenschaften, 97, 187–196.
Gastaldo, R. A., & Rolerson, M. W. (2008). Katbergia gen. nov., a new trace fossil form Upper Permian and Lower Triassic rocks of the Karoo Basin: Implications for palaeoenvironmental conditions at the P/Tr extinction event. Palaeontology, 51, 215–229.
Gastaldo, R. A., Adendorff, R., Bamford, M., Labandeira, C. C., Neveling, J., & Sims, H. (2005). Taphonomic trends of macrofloral assemblages across the Permian-Triassic boundary, Karoo Basin, South Africa. Palaios, 20, 479–497.
Gastaldo, R. A., Neveling, J., Clark, C. K., & Newbury, S. S. (2009). The terrestrial Permian-Triassic boundary event bed is a nonevent. Geology, 37, 199–202.
Grine, F. E., Forster, C. A., Cluver, M. A., & Georgi, J. A. (2006). Cranial variability, ontogeny and taxonomy of Lystrosaurus from the Karoo Basin of South Africa. In M. T. Carrano, T. J. Gaudin, R. W. Blob, & J. R. Wible (Eds.), Amniote paleobiology: Perspectives on the evolution of mammals, birds, and reptiles (pp. 403–503). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Huttenlocker, A. K., Sidor, C. A., & Smith, R. M. H. (2011). A new specimen of Promoschorhynchus (Therapsida: Therocephalia: Akidnognathidae) from the Lower Triassic of South Africa and its implications for theriodont survivorship across the Permo-Triassic boundary. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31, 405–421.
Irmis, R. B., & Whiteside, J. M. (2011). Delayed recovery of non-marine tetrapods after the end-Permian mass extinction tracks global carbon cycle. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279, 1310–1318.
Kammerer, C. F. (2011). Systematics of the Anteosauria (Therapsida: Dinocephalia). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 9, 261–304.
Kammerer, C. F., Angielczyk, K. D., & Fröbisch, J. (2011). A comprehensive taxonomic revision of Dicynodon (Therapsida, Anomodontia) and its implications for dicynodont phylogeny, biogeography, and biostratigraphy. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir, 11, 1–158.
Knoll, A. H., Bambach, R. K., Payne, J. L., Pruss, S., & Fischer, W. W. (2007). Paleophysiology and end-Permian mass extinction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 256, 295–313.
Lloyd, G. T. (2012). A refined modelling approach to assess the influence of sampling on palaeobiodiveristy curves: New support for declining Cretaceous dinosaur richness. Biology Letters, 8, 123–126.
Lloyd, G. T., Davis, K. E., Pisani, D., Tarver, J. E., Ruta, M., Sakamoto, M., et al. (2008). Dinosaurs and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275, 2483–2490.
Lucas, S. G. (2009). Timing and magnitude of tetrapod extinctions across the Permo-Triassic boundary. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 36, 491–502.
MacLeod, K. G., Smith, R. M. H., Koch, P. L., & Ward, P. D. (2000). Timing of mammal-like reptile extinctions across the Permian-Triassic boundary in South Africa. Geology, 28, 227–230.
Marx, F. (2009). Marine mammals through time: When less is more in studying palaeodiversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 887–892.
Marx, F., & Uhen, M. D. (2010). Climate, critters, and cetaceans: Cenozoic drivers of the evolution of modern whales. Science, 327, 993–996.
McGowan, A. J., & Smith, A. B. (2008). Are global Phanerozoic marine diversity curves truly global? A study of the relationship between regional rock records and global Phanerozoic marine diversity. Paleobiology, 34, 80–103.
Newell, A. J., Sennikov, A. G., Benton, M. J., Molostovskaya, I. I., Golubev, V. K., Minikh, A. V., et al. (2010). Disruption of playa-lacustrine depositional systems at the Permo-Triassic boundary: Evidence from Vyazniki and Gorokhovets on the Russian Platform. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 167, 695–716.
Nicolas, M., & Rubidge, B. S. (2009). Assessing content and bias in South African Permo-Triassic Karoo tetrapod fossil collections. Palaeontologia Africana, 44, 13–20.
Nicolas, M., & Rubidge, B. S. (2010). Changes in Permo-Triassic terrestrial tetrapod ecological representation in the Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup) of South Africa. Lethaia, 43, 45–59.
Pace, D. W., Gastaldo, R. A., & Neveling, J. (2009). Early Triassic aggradational and degradational landscapes of the Karoo Basin and evidence for climate oscillation following the P-Tr event. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 79, 316–331.
Ray, S. (2005). Lystrosaurus (Therapsida, Dicynodontia) from India: taxonomy, relative growth, and cranial dimorphism. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 3, 203–221
Renne, P. R., Zichao, Z., Richards, M. A., Black, M. T., & Basu, A. R. (1995). Synchrony and causal relations between Permian-Triassic boundary crises and Siberian flood volcanism. Science, 269, 1413–1416.
Retallack, G. J., Smith, R. M. H., & Ward, P. D. (2003). Vertebrate extinction across Permian-Triassic boundary in Karoo Basin, South Africa. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 115, 1133–1152.
Retallack, G. J., Metzgar, C. A., Greaver, T., Jahren, A. H., Smith, R. M. H., & Sheldon, N. D. (2006). Middle-Late Permian extinction on land. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 118, 1398–1411.
Roopnarine, P. D., & Angielczyk, K. D. (2012). The evolutionary palaeoecology of species and the tragedy of the commons. Biology Letters, 8, 147–150.
Roopnarine, P. D., Angielczyk, K. D., Wang, S. C., & Hertog, R. (2007). Trophic network models explain instability of Early Triassic terrestrial communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 274, 2077–2086.
Rubidge, B. S. (Ed.) (1995). Biostratigraphy of the Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup). South African Committee for Stratigraphy Biostratigraphic Series, 1, 1–46.
Rubidge, B. S. (2005). Reuniting lost continents—fossil reptiles from the ancient Karoo and their wanderlust. South African Journal of Geology, 108, 135–172.
Ruta, M., & Benton, M. J. (2008). Calibrated diversity, tree topology and the mother of mass extinctions: The lesson of temnospondyls. Palaeontology, 51, 1261–1288.
Ruta, M., Cisneros, J. C., Liebrecht, T., Tsuji, L. A., & Müller, J. (2011). Amniotes through major biological crises: Faunal turnover among parareptiles and the end-Permian mass extinction. Palaeontology, 54, 1117–1137.
Sahney, S., & Benton, M. J. (2008). Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 275, 759–765.
Smith, A. B., & McGowan, A. J. (2007). The shape of the Phanerozoic marine palaeodiversity curve: How much can be predicted from the sedimentary rock record of western Europe? Palaeontology, 50, 765–774.
Smith, R. M. H. (1995). Changing fluvial environments across the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Basin, South Africa and possible causes of tetrapod extinctions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 117, 81–104.
Smith, R. M. H., & Botha, J. (2005). The recovery of terrestrial vertebrate diversity in the South African Karoo Basin after the end-Permian extinction. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 4, 555–568.
Smith, R. M. H., & Ward, P. D. (2001). Pattern of vertebrate extinction across an event bed at the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Geology, 29, 1147–1150.
Smith, R., Rubidge, B., & van der Walt, M. (2012). Therapsid biodiversity patterns and paleoenvironments of the Karoo Basin, South Africa. In A. Chinsamy-Turan (Ed.), Forerunners of mammals: Radiation histology biology (pp. 31–62). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Taylor, G. K., Tucker, C., Twitchett, R. J., Kearsey, T., Benton, M. J., Newell, A. J., et al. (2009). Magnetostratigraphy of Permian/Triassic boundary sequences in the Cis-Urals, Russia: No evidence for a major temporal hiatus. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 281, 36–47.
Tverdokhlebov, V. P., Tverdokhlebova, G. I., Surkov, M. V., & Benton, M. J. (2002). Tetrapod localities from the Triassic of the SE of European Russia. Earth-Science Reviews, 60, 1–66.
Tverdokhlebov, V. P., Tverdokhlebova, G. I., Minikh, A. V., Surkov, M. V., & Benton, M. J. (2005). Upper Permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the South Urals, Russia. Earth-Science Reviews, 69, 27–77.
Ward, P. D., Montgomery, D. R., & Smith, R. (2000). Altered river morphology in South Africa related to the Permian-Triassic extinction. Science, 289, 1740–1743.
Ward, P. D., Botha, J., Buick, R., De Kock, M. O., Erwin, D. H., Garrison, G. H., et al. (2005). Abrupt and gradual extinction among Late Permian land vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Science, 307, 709–714.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Angielczyk, K.D. (2014). Introduction. In: Kammerer, C., Angielczyk, K., Fröbisch, J. (eds) Early Evolutionary History of the Synapsida. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6841-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6841-3_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6840-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6841-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)