The End-Permian Mass Extinction

Abstract

With an estimated species loss of more than 90 % in the marine realm (Raup 1979 ; Erwin 2006 ) and the most profound ecologic impact among all extinctions (McGhee et al. 2013 ), the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) is widely recognized as the most devastating event in the history of metazoan life. Already since the mid-1990s, when paleontologic studies increasingly focused on the impact and consequences of the EPME using actual fi eld data (e.g., Wignall and Hallam 1992 ; Schubert and Bottjer 1995 ), ichnology was recognized an important tool to reconstruct ecologic conditions during the extinction and its aftermath (e.g., Twitchett and Wignall 1996 ; Twitchett 1999 ). Today, trace-fossil data such as bioturbation indices, ichnodiver- sity, burrow size, or the presence of certain ichnotaxa are used as integral part of models to assess ecologic recovery (Twitchett et al. 2004 ; Pietsch et al. 2014 ). Twitchett ( 1999 ), Twitchett and Barras ( 2004 ), and Morrow and Hasiotis ( 2007 ) gave some substantial overviews on the consequences of the EPME as evidenced by trace fossils. New studies from a number of localities, as well as some new develop- ments in the post-extinction research allow for a furthering of the discussion on ecologic consequences of this severe event and the controls of its recovery.