The Triumph of Reptiles

In the Permian Period reptiles conquer the world

The Permian period, which began about 290 million years ago, was characterised by ice ages for the next 20 million years. Thus, extreme climatic differences developed. At that time, our planet had only one continuous land mass, the supercontinent Pangaea and a single sea, Phantalassa. There were huge, hot deserts as well as cold regions where it sometimes even snowed.

Overall, however, the climate in the Permian was harsh and dry. Rivers and lakes disappeared, as did the humid tropical forests, and the continuous land mass allowed the deserts to spread unhindered.

These were bad times for amphibians, because they lost a large part of their habitat. Reptiles, on the other hand, spread out. Soon the first large land reptiles appeared and colonised the landscapes of the supercontinent Pangaea.

The Permian period lasted about 50 million years. When it ended 248 million years ago, more than 95 percent of all life forms disappeared from the earth in the largest mass extinction in evolutionary history. The reason for this was a prolonged dry period, which caused deserts to spread across the entire supercontinent. But from those ashes, one of the greatest evolutionary success stories was to emerge a short time later: the dinosaurs.