what species were lost in the permian mass extinction
Of the five or so mass extinctions recorded in Earth's fossils, this one at the end of the Permian period and the start of the Triassic was the most catastrophic. More than half of the families of living things died out, and as many as 90 to 96 percent of the planet's marine species were lost.At the same time, perhaps 70 percent of the land's reptile, amphibian, insect, and plants species went extinct.he Permian layers contain abundant animal fossils and fossilized traces of animals, while the Triassic layers are almost devoid of fossils, suggesting a mass extinction event occurred 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian. Credits: 2001 WGBH Educational Foundation and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc.