Permian

The Permian began 298 million years ago, and it ended 252 million years ago. It was the period when all land masses were unified to the supercontinent Pangea. The brachiopods developed a huge diversity and there were also reefs which were built by sponges, corals and bryozoans. It was the time of the last trilobites. On land, the seed plants became more powerful and the first conifers emerged. The reptiles developed one group which included the early ancestors of the mammals. The climate was very dry, and the ice age was going on. At the end, the worst of the five big mass extinctions happened.

On the picture, you can see different kinds of sea life on the seafloor, especially the coral-like brachiopod genus of Richthofenia. Above them, different vertebrates are swimming like the bony fish Palaeoniscus, the shark relative Helicoprion and the first marine reptile Mesosaurus. In the background, you can see a forest of spore and seed plants like Arthropitys and Glossopteris. In this forest, different amphibians and reptiles are walking around like Eryops, Dimetrodon, Gorgonops, Scutosaurus, and the early gliding reptile Coelurosauravus.