The Lopingian is the uppermost

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

/last

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

. It is the last epoch of the

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

. The Lopingian was preceded by the

Guadalupian The Guadalupian is the second and middle Series (stratigraphy), series/Epoch (geology), 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 an ...

and followed by the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 251.9 Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which ...

. The Lopingian is often synonymous with the informal terms late Permian or upper Permian. The name was introduced by

Amadeus William Grabau Amadeus William Grabau (January 9, 1870 – March 20, 1946) was an American geologist, teacher, stratigrapher, paleontologist, and author who worked in the United States and China. Biography Grabau's grandfather, J.A.A. Grabau, led a group of ...

in 1931 and derives from

Leping Leping () is a county-level city in the northeast of Jiangxi province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jingdezhen Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city in eastern Jiangxi province with a total population ...

, Jiangxi in China. It consists of two

stages Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

/ ages. The earlier is the

Wuchiapingian In the geologic timescale, the Wuchiapingian or Wujiapingian (from in the Liangshan area of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province ) is an age or stage of the Permian. It is also the lower or earlier of two subdivisions of the Lopingian Epoch or S ...

and the later is the

Changhsingian In the geologic time scale, the Changhsingian or Changxingian is the latest age or uppermost stage of the Permian. It is also the upper or latest of two subdivisions of the Lopingian Epoch or Series. The Changhsingian lasted from to 251.9 Ma a ...

. The

International Chronostratigraphic Chart The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), sometimes unofficially referred to as the International Stratigraphic Commission, is a daughter or major subcommittee grade scientific organization that concerns itself with stratigraphical, geo ...

(v2018/07) provides a numerical age of 259.1 ±0.5 Ma. If a

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), sometimes referred to as a golden spike, is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. ...

(GSSP) has been approved, the lower boundary of the earliest stage determines numerical age of an epoch. The GSSP for the

has a numerical age of 259.8 ± 0.4 Ma. Evidence from

Milankovitch cycles Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term was coined and named after the Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković. In the 1920s, he pr ...

suggests that the length of an Earth day during this epoch was approximately 22 hours.

Geography

During the Lopingian, most of the earth was in the supercontinent

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea ( ) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous period approximately 335 mi ...

. The Zechstein sea, would, at times, be connected to the Paleotethys; Other features of the earth during the time were the

Microcontinent Continental crustal fragments, partly synonymous with microcontinents, are pieces of continents that have broken off from main continental masses to form distinct islands that are often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin. Caus ...

Cathaysia Cathaysia was a microcontinent or a group of terranes that rifted off Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic. They mostly correspond to the modern territory of China, historically referred to in Europe as Cathay, which was split into the North China ...

; And the Cimmerian superterrane, which divided the

Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

realm into the

Paleo-Tethys Ocean The Paleo-Tethys or Palaeo-Tethys Ocean was an ocean located along the northern margin of the paleocontinent Gondwana that started to open during the Middle Cambrian, grew throughout the Paleozoic, and finally closed during the Late Triassic; ex ...

and the slowly expanding

Neotethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasian ...

Life

The Lopingian ended with the

Permian–Triassic extinction event The Permian–Triassic extinction event (also known as the P–T extinction event, the Late Permian extinction event, the Latest Permian extinction event, the End-Permian extinction event, and colloquially as the Great Dying,) was an extinction ...

, where over 95% of

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

went

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. The series follows the

, which ended with the

Capitanian mass extinction In the geologic timescale, the Capitanian is an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Permian. It is also the uppermost or latest of three subdivisions of the Guadalupian Epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. ...

, during which many species of

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

ammonoid Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

s and other groups went extinct.

Conodonts Conodonts, are an extinct group of marine jawless vertebrates belonging to the Class (biology), class Conodonta (from Ancient Greek κῶνος (''kōnos''), meaning "cone", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth"). They are primarily known ...

would reach their all-time low during this period, despite this, they are recovered from most marine Permian localities. Common conodonts from the Lopingian include the genera ''

Clarkina ''Clarkina'' is an extinct genus of conodonts. It is considered to be an offshore, outer shelf or basinal, deep-water taxon. The genus name is a tribute to David Leigh Clark. Synonyms ''Clarkina'' Soodan 1975 is a junior synonym for the pre ...

'' and ''

Hindeodus ''Hindeodus'' is an extinct genus of conodonts in the family Anchignathodontidae. The generic name ''Hindeodus'' is a tribute to George Jennings Hinde, a British geologist and paleontologist from the 1800s and early 1900s. The suffix -odus typica ...

''. The Lopingian would see the decline of the Paleozoic

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

(

Goniatitida Goniatids, informally goniatites, are ammonoid cephalopods that form the order Goniatitida, derived from the more primitive Agoniatitida during the Middle Devonian some 390 million years ago (around Eifelian stage). Goniatites (goniatitids) su ...

and

Prolecanitida Prolecanitida is an order of extinct ammonoid cephalopods, the major Late Paleozoic group of ammonoids alongside the order Goniatitida. Prolecanitids had narrow shells, discoidal (disc-shaped) to thinly lenticular (lens-shaped). They retained ...

) and the rise of the order

Ceratitida Ceratitida is an order that contains almost all ammonoid cephalopod genera from the Triassic as well as ancestral forms from the Upper Permian, the exception being the phylloceratids which gave rise to the great diversity of post-Triassic ammon ...

, especially within the superfamily

Xenodiscoidea Xenodiscoidea, formerly Xenodiscaceae, is a superfamily within the ammonoid order Ceratitida. The superfamily was named by Frech in 1902, presently contains ten families, only one of which was included in the original Otocerataceae of Hyatt, 190 ...

. Only seven

trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, ...

are known from the Lopingian, with only five by the end of the epoch. One of the last members of this clade was '' Kathwaia capitorosa''.

Eurypterids Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct marine arthropods that form the order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period, 467.3 million years ago. The ...

were nearly extinct by this point, consisting of the possibly Lopingian '' Campylocephalus permicus'' of Russia; and the

'' Woodwardopterus? freemanorum'' of Australia. A member of the extant

Horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only surviving xiphosurans. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or even crustaceans; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids like spiders, ticks, and scor ...

family, ''

Limulidae Horseshoe crabs are arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only surviving xiphosurans. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or even crustaceans; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids like spiders, ticks, and scorpi ...

;

Guangyuanolimulus ''Guangyuanolimulus'' is an extinct genus of limulid xiphosuran that lived during the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Distribution ''Guangyuanolimulus shangsiensis'' fossils are known from South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'n� ...

'' appears at the end of the period. On land,

gorgonopsians Gorgonopsia (from the Greek Gorgon, a mythological beast, and 'aspect') is an extinct clade of sabre-toothed therapsids from the Middle to the Upper Permian, roughly between 270 and 252 million years ago. They are characterised by a long and ...

would become the apex predators after the extinction of the

Dinocephalians Dinocephalians (terrible heads) are a clade of large-bodied early therapsids that flourished in the Early Permian, Early and Middle Permian between 279.5 and 260 million years ago (Ma), but became extinct during the Capitanian mass extinct ...

, Other predators include the Therocephalians. Herbivorous animals of the Lopingian include the

pareiasaurs Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Perm ...

such as ''

Scutosaurus ''Scutosaurus'' ("shield lizard") is an extinct genus of pareiasaur parareptiles. Its genus name refers to large plates of armor scattered across its body. It was a large anapsid reptile that, unlike most reptiles, held its legs underneath its b ...

'' or

dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ...

s, such as ''

Dicynodon ''Dicynodon'' (from Ancient Greek '' δίς'' "two" and '' κυνόδους'' "canine teeth", often translated to "two canine-teeth" or "two dog-teeth") is a genus of dicynodont therapsid that lived in southern and eastern Africa during the Lat ...

''.

Fossil gallery

File:Smilesaurus skull.jpg, '' Smilesaurus ferox'', one of the most fearsome

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

s of the Lopingian File:Dicynodon.jpg, Skull of ''

'', a

. File:Scutosaurus.jpg, ''

'', a common herbivore during the late Permian File:Paratirolites robustus (10.5852-ejt.2021.776.1559) Figure 26.png, '' Paratirolites'', an

from the latest Permian (

)

References

{{Geological history, p, m *03 Geological epochs

Geography

Life

Fossil gallery

See also

References