The Permian Period lasted from 299 mya- 251 mya.The Permian Period is charachterized among land vertebrates by the diversification into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles,
lepidosaurs and
archosaurs. At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in an Ice Age from that had ended the Carboniferous. Glaciers receded around the mid-Permian period as the climate gradually warmed.
In the late Permian period, the drying continued although the temperature cycled between warm and cool cycles. Terrestrial life in the Permian included diverse plants,
fungi,
arthropods, and various types of
tetrapods. Marine life included
fossil mollusks,
echinoderms, and
brachiopods. Well into the Permian, the most successful insect life was the ancestor of the cockroach.
