Guadalupian

The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/epoch of the Permian. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and dates between 274.4 ± 0.4 – 259.51 ± 0.21 Mya. The series saw the rise of the therapsids, a minor extinction event called Olson's Extinction and a significant mass extinction called the end-Capitanian extinction event. The Guadalupian is also known as the Middle Permian.

The Guadalupian is the second and middle series or epoch of the Permian. Previously called Middle Permian, the name of this epoch is part of a revision of Permian stratigraphy for standard global correlation. The name "Guadalupian" was first proposed in the early 1900s, and approved by the International Subcommission on Permian Stratigraphy in 1996. References to the Middle Permian still exist. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico. The International Chronostratigraphic Chart V2021/07 provides a numerical age of 273.01 ± 0.14 – 259.51 ± 0.21 mya.

Therapsids became the dominant land animals in Guadalupian, displacing the pelycosaurs. Therapsids evolved from a group of pelycosaurs called sphenacodonts. Therapsida consists of four major clades: the dinocephalians, the herbivorous anomodonts, the carnivorous biarmosuchians, and the mostly carnivorous theriodonts. After a brief burst of evolutionary diversity, the dinocephalians died out in the later Guadalupian.

A mass extinction occurred 273 million years ago in the early Guadalupian before the larger Permian–Triassic extinction event. This extinction was originally called Olson's Gap because it was thought to be a problem in preservation of fossils. Since the 1990s it has been renamed Olson's Extinction. This extinction event occurred near the beginning of the epoch and led to an extended period of low diversity when two-thirds of terrestrial vertebrate life was lost worldwide. Global diversity rose dramatically by the end probably the result of disaster taxa filling empty guilds, only to fall again when the end-Guadalupian event caused a diversity drop in the Wuchiapingian.

There is no agreed cause for the Olson's Extinction. Climate change may be a possible cause. Extreme environments were observed from the Permian of Kansas which resulted from a combination of hot climate and acidic waters particularly coincident with Olson's Extinction. Whether this climate change was a result of Earth's natural processes or exacerbated by another event is unknown.

The climate resembled that of much of central Asia today. Pangea was a supercontinent and had very hot dry summers and cold bitter winters. At this time on the equator there was a desert that reached 74 degrees Celsius. The coasts were tropical and had monsoons.

The first two-thirds of the epoch were the continuation of a temperate and tropical climate. This started to dry out and the coal forming of the previous epoch stopped. The change in climate also provided a new environment for new tetrapods, reptiles, fish, plants, and invertebrates.

In the last third the temperature started to drop and many coral reefs died out. If that was not enough, increased volcano activity brought a reduction in oxygen, a greenhouse and mass extinction.