PERMIAN

298-252 MYA

Era of the First Reptiles, Ends with The Third and Biggest Mass Extinction on History

The Permian-Triassic extinction killed off so much of life on Earth that it is also known as the Great Dying. Marine invertebrates were particularly hard hit by this extinction, especially trilobites, which were finally killed off entirely. But you don’t get a nickname like the Great Dying for playing favorites; almost no form of life was spared by this extinction, which caused the disappearance of more than 95 percent of marine species and upward of 70 percent of land-dwelling vertebrates.