Good books or sources of Permian information?

[Hat]

Hello. I haven't been to this site for a while, and I've been doing a lot of paleontology reading and studying. I've been through 6 or 7 books over the past couple of months that focus on different aspects of paleontology. It seems that one of the areas I'm most interested in is the Permian period, but it's really difficult to find the kind of information I'm looking for. There seems to be a swath of books at my local library covering dinosaurs, the Cambrian explosion, Mammoths, and even several books on the origin of life itself. These books fill up one and a half 8 foot tall book shelves, but there are only 2 books on the Permian period - both by the same author, and both on the same topic - the end Permian extinction. I think there may be a few other periodicals and such that are focused on the geology of the basin, but not on the time period, the fauna, the vertebrates, the predators, etc...

 

Is there just that much of a lack of information on the Permian period (in the fossil record), or is it just that no one is very interested in it? Even Amazon searching for a book on the Permian gets very few results with mostly low rated books. I thought surely that someone would have written a book covering all those strange and interesting creatures - the Gorgonopsia, the Eryops, the Edaphosaurus, the sea creatures and so on.

 

[ynot]

You may have better luck if You look for papers or books on the formations or of flora/fauna of permian rocks rather than a generalized book on the permian.

Tony

[PFOOLEY]

Early Permian footprints and facies

Permian stratigraphy and paleontology of the Robledo Mountains, New Mexico

Carboniferous-Permian transition at Carrizo Arroyo, central New Mexico

The Nonmarine Permian

Permian of Central New Mexico

The Carboniferous-Permian transition in central New Mexico

The Carboniferous-Permian transition

[FossilDAWG]

The Permian ended with the single greatest mass extinction event in Earth's history.  A really interesting book that lays out the evidence and theories about what happened is "Extinction: How life on Earth nearly ended 250 million years ago" by Douglas Erwin.  Perhaps you've seen that one, as you mentioned the Permian extinctions.  Another is "Gorgon" by Peter Ward, but that one also is mostly centered on the extinction event, though from a very different perspective than Erwin's book. 

 

Don

 

[doushantuo]

Let me try to give you an idea about what permian literature CAN be about,just a random selection:

a very well known Permian formation:

Permiusa

pangea climate models:

fluta-climateP3.pdf

coelacanths from the Permian of Germany:

DiedriGermanyLagerstSL.pdf

playa sedimentology:

mckidrylaSEp982011analogarideserty.pdf

nice paleobotanical piece(gigantopterids of course being well-known elements of the Permian paleoflora):

 

LiPermianGigantopvasovineaAJBotanCHINA+.pdf

The Permian was a time of widespread evaporite deposition(e.g.Castile ,Texas).

some famous European locations:Lodeve(France),Saar-Nahe Basin,Germany,the Kupferschiefer(Copper shale) of Germany

Because of salt diapirism(evaporites often being halites) a lot of post- Permian strata tend to be disturbed

 

[Cam28]

Having been very fascinated by permian vertebrates at one time (& still somewhat am) I highly recommend the Lower Permian Vertebrates of Oklahoma Volume 1- Waurika (he also made a couple other books on permian vertebrates which I imagine are great too, lots of pics & some good background info) and Synapsida by John McLoughlin (covers general mammal lineage evolution through the paleozoic & mesozoic, very good and great pictures despite its age & very reasonably priced, I found it from a library) 

 

edit: Oh yeah & the Amphibian evolution book by Schoch is pretty good but mostly inclusive to amphibians over time (which were a dominant force in the permian) 

[doushantuo]

something relatively new about permian vertebrates:

lepidcranipard

 

[FossilDudeCO]

@Hat maybe send @dinodigger a PM, he digs Permian non stop down in Texas

He should eb bale to point you in the right direction!

[siteseer]

On 1/9/2017 at 8:27 AM, Hat said:

Hello. I haven't been to this site for a while, and I've been doing a lot of paleontology reading and studying. I've been through 6 or 7 books over the past couple of months that focus on different aspects of paleontology. It seems that one of the areas I'm most interested in is the Permian period, but it's really difficult to find the kind of information I'm looking for. There seems to be a swath of books at my local library covering dinosaurs, the Cambrian explosion, Mammoths, and even several books on the origin of life itself. These books fill up one and a half 8 foot tall book shelves, but there are only 2 books on the Permian period - both by the same author, and both on the same topic - the end Permian extinction. I think there may be a few other periodicals and such that are focused on the geology of the basin, but not on the time period, the fauna, the vertebrates, the predators, etc...

 

Is there just that much of a lack of information on the Permian period (in the fossil record), or is it just that no one is very interested in it? Even Amazon searching for a book on the Permian gets very few results with mostly low rated books. I thought surely that someone would have written a book covering all those strange and interesting creatures - the Gorgonopsia, the Eryops, the Edaphosaurus, the sea creatures and so on.

 

 

 

Part of the reason for the lack of a mainstream book focusing on the biologic and geologic events of the Permian may be that scientists are fascinated by both the beginning of the period, the time when the vast swamps of the Late Carboniferous transitioned into drier environments, and the end, the time of Earth's greatest mass extinction.  And part of that is because there are numerous fossiliferous Early Permian deposits worldwide but fewer well-known, productive Middle-Late Permian ones.  I would say the Late Permian ones are better-sampled than those of the Middle Permian because of the interest in the mass extinction.  Scientists like having stats for just before and just after a mass extinction to determine severity relative to other events.  Some collectors might have noticed just about every commercially-available Permian fossil is from the Early Permian.  Those known Middle-Late Permian sites tend to be rather remote and/or off-limits to fossil collecting (areas of China, Russia, and South Africa).

 

A friend did tell me about a book that is about the Permian but I just did a quick search and couldn't find it.  I'll have to get back to you on that.

[Hat]

Thanks everyone. I was in an accident two weeks ago and just got out of the hospital a few days ago. Haven't been on the internet until just now. I couldn't get this thread out of my mind. I had only seen one reply before it happened, and the whole time I was in the hospital I kept thinking "I sure wish I could see what people are saying about my Permian question". There appears to be a lot of great information coming from everyone here. Thanks a million. I will now commence to sorting through all of the information you folks have provided.

 

Scott.