The Cisuralian is the first

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 in ...

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 by ...

of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and 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 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

. The Cisuralian was preceded by the Pennsylvanian and followed by the

Guadalupian The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/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 and Texas, and dates between 272.95 ± 0. ...

. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

in Russia and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and dates between 298.9 ± 0.15 – 272.3 ± 0.5 Mya. The Cisuralian is often synonymous with the informal terms early Permian or lower Permian. It corresponds approximately with the Wolfcampian in southwestern North America. The series saw the appearance of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

and was a relatively stable warming period of about 21 million years.

Name and background

The Cisuralian is the first series or epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded by the last Pennsylvanian epoch (

Gzhelian The Gzhelian ( ) is an age in the ICS geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest stage of the Pennsylvanian, the youngest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Gzhelian lasted from to Ma. It follows the Kasim ...

) and is followed by the Permian

Epoch. The name "Cisuralian" was proposed in 1982, and approved by the International Subcommission on Permian Stratigraphy in 1996. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan. Limestones on the edge of

Russian Platform East European Platform or Russian Platform is a large and flat area covered by sediments in Eastern Europe spanning from the Ural Mountains to the Tornquist Zone and from the Peri-Caspian Basin to the Barents Sea. Over geological time the platfor ...

and make up the

Ishimbay Ishimbay (russian: Ишимба́й; ba, Ишембай, translit=İşembay) is a town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the banks of the Belaya and Tayruk Rivers, south of Ufa. Population: Administrative and municipal s ...

oil fields. These oil fields were vital to the Soviet Union during WW2 when the Germans controlled the oil fields to the west. The International Chronostratigraphic Chart (v2018/07) provides a numerical age of 298.9 ± 0.15 – 272.3 ± 0.5 Mya. The base of the Cisuralian series and the Permian

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

is defined as the place in the stratigraphic record where fossils of the conodont ''

Streptognathodus ''Streptognathodus'' is an extinct genus of conodonts from the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. Use in stratigraphy Late Carboniferous The top of the Kasimovian stage is close to the first appearance of ''Streptognathodus zethus''. The ...

isolatus'' first appear. The global reference profile for the base (the GSSP or golden spike) is located in the valley of the Aidaralash River, near

Aqtöbe Aktobe ( kz, Ақтөбе, Aqtöbe; russian: Актобе, Aktobe) is a city on the Ilek River in Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of Aktobe Region. In 2020, it had a population of 500,757 people. Aktobe is located in the west of Ka ...

in the Ural Mountains of Kazakhstan.

Geography

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

collided with

Laurussia Laurasia () was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around ( Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pan ...

and created the

Alleghenian orogeny The Alleghanian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geological mountain-forming events that formed the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Mountains. The term and spelling Alleghany orogeny was originally proposed by H.P. Woodward in 195 ...

in present-day North America. In northwestern Europe, the

Hercynian orogeny The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny was a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Nomenclature The name ''Variscan'', comes f ...

continued. This created the large supercontinent,

Pangea 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 approximately 335 million y ...

, by the middle of the early Permian, which was to have an impact on the climate.

Climate

At the start of the Permian, the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, which began in the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

, as at its peak.

Glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

receded over the course of the late Cisuralian as the Earth's climate gradually warmed, particularly during the Artinskian Warming Event, drying the continent's interiors.Palaeos: Life Through Deep Time > The Permian Period
Accessed 1 April 2013. The pan-tropical belt of Pangaea experienced particularly significant aridification during this epoch.

Biodiversity

The swampy fringes were mostly ferns, seed ferns, and

lycophytes The lycophytes, when broadly circumscribed, are a vascular plant (tracheophyte) subgroup of the kingdom Plantae. They are sometimes placed in a division Lycopodiophyta or Lycophyta or in a subdivision Lycopodiophytina. They are one of the oldest ...

. The series saw the appearance of beetles and flies. The coal swamps from the

continued and the herbivores,''

Diadectes ''Diadectes'' (meaning ''crosswise-biter'') is an extinct genus of large reptiliomorphs or synapsids that lived during the early Permian period (Artinskian-Kungurian stages of the Cisuralian epoch, between 290 and 272 million years ago). ''Diade ...

''and ''

Edaphosaurus ''Edaphosaurus'' (, meaning "pavement lizard" for dense clusters of teeth) is a genus of extinct edaphosaurid synapsids that lived in what is now North America and Europe around 303.4 to 272.5 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous to ...

''. The dry interior with small insectivores.

Caseids Caseidae are an extinct family of basal synapsids that lived from the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian between about 300 and 265 million years ago. Fossils of these animals come from the south-central part of the United States ( Texas, ...

and prototherapsid''

Tetraceratops ''Tetraceratops insignis'' ("four-horned face emblem") is an extinct synapsid from the Early Permian that was formerly considered the earliest known representative of Therapsida, a group that includes mammals and their close extinct relatives. It ...

'' made their appearance. The marine life was probable more diverse than modern times as the climate warmed. Unusual sharks such as ''

Helicoprion ''Helicoprion'' is an extinct genus of shark-like eugeneodont fish. Almost all fossil specimens are of spirally arranged clusters of the individuals' teeth, called "tooth whorls", which in life were embedded in the lower jaw. As with most extin ...

'' continued in this series. Early Permian terrestrial faunas were dominated by pelycosaurs,

diadectids Diadectidae is an extinct family (biology), family of early tetrapods that lived in what is now North America and Europe during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian in Asia during the Late Permian. They were the first herbivore, herbivorous t ...

, and

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

s,Huttenlocker, A. K., and E. Rega. 2012. The Paleobiology and Bone Microstructure of Pelycosaurian-grade Synapsids. Pp. 90–119 in A. Chinsamy (ed.) Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation, Histology, Biology. Indiana University Press. The pelycosaurs appeared during the

Late Carboniferous Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

, and reached their apex in the Cisuralian remaining the dominant land animals for some 40 million years. A few continued into the

Capitanian In the geologic timescale, the Capitanian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is also the uppermost or latest of three subdivisions of the Guadalupian Epoch or Series. The Capitanian lasted between and million years ago. It was preceded by th ...

. They were succeeded by the

therapsid Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...

s. File:Dimetrodon grandis.jpg, ''

Dimetrodon ''Dimetrodon'' ( or ,) meaning "two measures of teeth,” is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), around 295–272 million years ago (Mya). It is a member of the family Sphenacodontid ...

'', a

pelycosaur Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term ''mammal-like reptile'' had been used, and pelycosaur was considered an order, but this is no ...

, was at the top of the food chain in the Cisuralian File:Helicoprion bessonovi cropped.png, ''

bessonovi'' with characteristic 'tooth-whorl' at front of jaw

Subdivisions

Global

Asselian In the geologic timescale, the Asselian is the earliest geochronologic age or lowermost chronostratigraphic stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Asselian lasted between and million years ago (Ma). It ...

stage (298.9 ± 0.15 – 294.6 ± 0.8 Mya) *

Sakmarian In the geologic timescale, the Sakmarian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Sakmarian lasted between 293.52 and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Asselian and followed by t ...

stage (294.6 ± 0.8 – 290.1 ± 0.7 Mya) *

Artinskian In the geologic timescale, the Artinskian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Artinskian likely lasted between and million years ago (Ma) according to the most recent revision of the ...

stage (290.1 ± 0.7 – 283.5 ± 0.7 Mya) *

Kungurian In the geologic timescale, the Kungurian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is the latest or upper of four subdivisions of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Kungurian lasted between and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Artin ...

stage (283.5 ± 0.7 – 272.3 ± 0.5 Mya)

Regional

*New Zealand **Telfordian (289 – 278 Mya) **Mangapirian (278 – 270.6 Mya)

References

{{Geological history, p, m Geological epochs *01