The Permian

During the early Permian, life on land and in the ocean would look much as it did at the end of the Carboniferous. However, the changing climate, from warm and moist during much of the Carboniferous, to cool and arid at the start of the Permian, would lead to many changes throughout the period. By the end of the Permian, many of the water-loving plant species would be replaced by seed ferns and conifers, plants that were better adapted to the drier environment of Pangea. The amphibians, which had dominated aquatic and terrestrial biomes during the Carboniferous, were replaced by rapidly diversifying reptiles. However, the Permian period would end with the single greatest catastrophe life on Earth has ever seen. The end-Permian mass extinction, known as the Great Dying, would cause the extinction of nearly 97% of species on the planet.