The Permian was a remarkable time period. It represents the maximum stage of Pangean continental assembly, includes a major global climatic shift from glacial to nonglacial conditions (icehouse-greenhouse transition), and is ter minated by one of the most profound faunal/floral extinction events in the Earth's history. In addition, Permian oceans, although poorly understood, must have had some quite unique characteristics. Permian seas reached the most extreme values of carbon, sulfur, and strontium isotopic ratios ever achieved in Phanerozoic time, and the isotopic ratios of all three...

The Permian was a remarkable time period. It represents the maximum stage of Pangean continental assembly, includes a major global climatic shift from glacial to nonglacial conditions (icehouse-greenhouse transition), and is ter minated by one of the most profound faunal/floral extinction events in the Earth's history. In addition, Permian oceans, although poorly understood, must have had some quite unique characteristics. Permian seas reached the most extreme values of carbon, sulfur, and strontium isotopic ratios ever achieved in Phanerozoic time, and the isotopic ratios of all three...