From paradise to mass extinction: correlating and comparing low and high latitude basins during the greatest Permian extinction events and subsequent faunal recoveries.

Drastic global climate change during the Permian resulted in two of the greatest mass extinction events of all time, one around 260 Ma ago and the other around 252 Ma ago.

Arguably the best record of these events on land is preserved in the main Karoo Basin (MKB) of South Africa, which was situated in higher latitudes (~60° S) at those times.

Because of the relatively poorer fossil record from lower (0-15°) palaeolatitudes, latitudinal differences in faunal assemblages, and lack of precise radiometric dates, global applicability of extinction and faunal recovery patterns observed in the MKB has long remained elusive; we simply lacked the necessary data.

As such, stratigraphic correlations between basins are tenuous.

Moreover, it is not known whether the terrestrial expression of the two greatest mass extinction events of the Permian, and subsequent ecosystem recovery, are preserved in western Europe.

ExtinctRecov is a novel interdisciplinary project that aims to, for the first time, combine palaeontological, sedimentological, stratigraphical and geochronological data to correlate the Permian-Triassic Spanish and French basins and the MKB.

ExtinctRecov will also explore patterns of faunal turnover, extinction, and recovery during the mid-to-late Permian and across the Permo-Triassic boundary i.e. between 265 and 250 Ma ago.

The proposed project draws on the geological, geochronological, and palaeontological advances and work undertaken during the past two decades in the Pyrenees and Lodéve basins (Spain and France) and the main Karoo Basin (South Africa), which finally makes this ambitious project possible.

Implications of the results from the proposed project include new and key insights on the faunal communities present in this part of Pangea and a better understanding of how terrestrial ecosystems were affected by and recovered from the late Capitanian and Permo-Triassic extinction.