Late Permian soil-forming paleoenvironments on Gondwana: A review

Paleosols represent fossil records of paleolandscape processes, paleobiotic interactions with the land surface, and paleoclimate. Paleosol-based reconstructions have figured prominently in the study of significant changes in global climate and terrestrial life, with one of the more highly studied examples being the end-Permian extinction (EPE). The EPE was once thought to consist of synchronous extinctions in the marine realm and the terrestrial realm, with the latter displaying a lower magnitude extinction of vertebrate, insect, and plant life. However, emerging stratigraphic records, anchored by high-precision U-Pb ages, and compilations of fossil taxa indicate that the terrestrial realm on Gondwana experienced an asynchronous extinction record with the marine realm; and, at the global-scale, possibly the lack of a true mass extinction for plant and vertebrate communities. Moreover, paleosol-based interpretations of the EPE on Gondwana typically focus on one depositional basin and extrapolate those finding to assess the potential for global paleoenvironmental/paleoclimatic change. This review compiles observations of paleosols, sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemical data across Gondwana during the Late Permian in order to critically assess these interpretations of global change in the lead up to the EPE.

Automated summary

Paleosols provide valuable information about ancient landscapes, biotic interactions, and climate. They have played an important role in studying global climate changes and major extinctions, such as the end-Permian extinction. Recent research suggests that the extinctions in the marine and terrestrial realms during the end-Permian extinction were not synchronous, and there may have been no true mass extinction for plant and vertebrate communities on a global scale.