The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous period 298.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic period 251.902 Mya.
It is the last period of the Paleozoic era, the following Triassic period belongs to the Mesozoic era.
The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the region of Perm in Russia.
The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs, and archosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by two continents known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa.
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior. Amniotes, which could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors.
The end of the Capitanian stage of the Permian was marked by the major Capitanian mass extinction event, associated with the eruption of the Emeishan Traps.
The Permian (along with the Paleozoic) ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, in which nearly 81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species died out. It would take well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe.
On land, ecosystems took 30 million years to recover.