Re: The Permian-Triassic Extinction

[MICHAEL SCHMIDT <dmichaelschmidt@shaw.ca>]

There were no dinosaurs in the Permian.  A lot of people still think 
Dimetrodons were dinosaurs...they weren't.

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de>
Date: Sunday, October 22, 2006 8:31 am
Subject: Re: The Permian-Triassic Extinction

> <<Actually, there were dinosaurs in the Permian.   But they were 
> small and
> not very specialized at that point.   The highly evolved premammalian
> reptiles held dominion.>>
> 
> Actually, there weren't, Dora.  The earliest known dinosaurs are 
> from some
> of the Middle Triassic localities.  There were small reptiles 
> during the
> Permian, but no dinosaurs are among them.  Either re-read whatever 
> it was or
> throw it away.
> 
> <<It came as a surprise to me, too.   There was actually an entire
> well-developed world before the end Permian extinction wiped out 
> most life
> on Earth.   Not the case that before the Triassic, life had only 
> made it to
> the blob and fish stage.>>
> 
> As sauropsids ('reptiles') and synapsids are both known from the Upper
> Carboniferous of around 310 million years ago, evolution had been 
> working on
> those lineages for around 60 million years before the P-T 
> extinction(s), and
> this is probably why nobody suggested there wasn't a 'well-
> developed world'.
> 
>