Kungurian Age

What happened during this time?

Geophysical

• The Earth was still in an ice age at the start of this epoch, but glaciers receded around the mid-Permian period as the climate gradually warmed, drying the continent's interiors

• Gondwana collided Laurussia and created the Alleghenian orogeny in present-day North America, while the Hercynian orogeny continued in northwestern Europe

• These events created the large supercontinent, Pangea, by the middle of this epoch, which would impact the climate

Biological

Flora, spore-bearing

• Noeggerathian progymnosperms are present, and dominant in some swamp environments

• Extant clubmoss groups, such as the Lycopodiales and Selaginellales are found in the understory of some forests

• Marattialean tree ferns dominate along with progymnosperms in the beginning of the Early Permian

• Sphenophyllophytes and zygopterid ferns are found in the under-story, and horsetails along rivers and wetlands

• True ferns are beginning to appear on the landscape

Flora, seed-bearing

• Cycads definitely on the landscape; there is debate on fossils attributed to cycads from the Carboniferous

• Cordaites dominate in Euramerica; Glossopterids dominate in Gondwana

• Giganopterids were among the most striking and important plants of the Cathaysian flora of Sino-Malaya (Wang 1999)

• Seed ferns, such as the Callistophytales and Peltasperms were still on the landscape

• Vojnovskyales, a bizarre seed plant group with flower-like cones, appears in the Pennsylvanian, to quickly disappear in the Early Permian