Lopingian
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{short description|Third and final series of the Permian}}
{{Infobox geologic timespan
| name = Lopingian
| color = Lopingian
| time_start = 259.51
| time_start_uncertainty = 0.21
| time_end = 251.902
| time_end_uncertainty = 0.024
| image_map = Mollweide Paleographic Map of Earth, 255 Ma (Wuchiapingian Age).png
| caption_map = A map of Earth as it appeared 255 million years ago during the Lopingian Epoch, Wuchiapingian Age
| image_outcrop =
| caption_outcrop =
| image_art =
| caption_art =
| timeline = Permian
| name_formality = Formal
| name_accept_date =
| alternate_spellings =
| synonym1 = Late/Upper Permian
| synonym1_coined =
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| celestial_body = earth
| usage = Global (ICS)
| timescales_used = ICS Time Scale
| formerly_used_by =
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| chrono_unit = Epoch
| strat_unit = Series
| proposed_by =
| timespan_formality = Formal
| lower_boundary_def = FAD of the Conodont Clarkina postbitteri postbitteri
| lower_gssp_location = Penglaitan Section, Laibin, Guangxi, China
| lower_gssp_coords = {{Coord|23.6953|N|109.3211|E|display=inline}}
| upper_boundary_def = FAD of the Conodont Hindeodus parvus.
| upper_gssp_location = Meishan, Zhejiang, China
| upper_gssp_coords = {{Coord|31.0798|N|119.7058|E|display=inline}}
| o2 =
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The Lopingian is the uppermost series/last epoch of the Permian.{{cite web |last1=International Commission on Stratigraphy |title=Chart |url=http://www.stratigraphy.org/index.php/ics-chart-timescale |access-date=10 July 2018}} It is the last epoch of the Paleozoic. The Lopingian was preceded by the Guadalupian and followed by the Early Triassic.
The Lopingian is often synonymous with the informal terms late Permian or upper Permian.
The name was introduced by Amadeus William Grabau in 1931 and derives from Leping, Jiangxi in China.{{cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Shouxin |title=Geological Formation Names of China (1866–2000) |date=2009 |publisher=Higher Education Press/Springer |location=Beijing/Dordrecht |isbn=978-7-040-25475-4 |page=681 }} It consists of two stages/ages. The earlier is the Wuchiapingian and the later is the Changhsingian.{{cite book |last1=Allaby |first1=Michael |title=A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=4th |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199653065.001.0001 |isbn=9780199653065 }}
The International Chronostratigraphic Chart (v2018/07) provides a numerical age of 259.1 ±0.5 Ma. If a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) has been approved, the lower boundary of the earliest stage determines numerical age of an epoch. The GSSP for the Wuchiapingian has a numerical age of 259.8 ± 0.4 Ma.{{cite web |last1=International Commission on Stratigraphy |title=GSSPs |url=http://www.stratigraphy.org/index.php/ics-gssps |access-date=10 July 2018}}{{cite book |isbn=9780521786737|title=A Geologic Time Scale 2004|last1=Gradstein|first1=Felix M.|last2=Ogg|first2=James G.|last3=Smith|first3=Alan G.|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
Evidence from Milankovitch cycles suggests that the length of an Earth day during this epoch was approximately 22 hours.{{cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Huaichun |last2=Zhang |first2=Shihong |last3=Hinnov |first3=Linda A. |last4=Jiang |first4=Ganqing |last5=Feng |first5=Qinglai |last6=Li |first6=Haiyan |last7=Yang |first7=Tianshui |date=13 September 2013 |title=Time-calibrated Milankovitch cycles for the late Permian |journal=Nature Communications |volume=4 |page=2452 |doi=10.1038/ncomms3452 |pmid=24030138 |pmc=3778519 |bibcode=2013NatCo...4.2452W |s2cid=6477972 |doi-access=free }}
Geography
During the Lopingian, most of the earth was in the supercontinent Pangaea. The Zechstein sea, would, at times, be connected to the Paleotethys; Other features of the earth during the time were the Microcontinent Cathaysia; And the Cimmerian superterrane, which divided the Tethys Ocean realm into the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and the slowly expanding Neotethys Ocean.
Life
{{Main|:Category:Lopingian life}}
The Lopingian ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where over 95% of species went extinct.
The series follows the Guadalupian, which ended with the Capitanian mass extinction, during which many species of brachiopods, ammonoids and other groups went extinct.{{cite journal |last1=Bond |first1=David |last2=Hilton |first2=Jason |last3=Wignall |first3=Paul |last4=Ali |first4=Jason |last5=Stevens |first5=Liadan |last6=Sun |first6=Yadong |last7=Lai |first7=Xulong |title=The Middle Permian (Capitanian) mass extinction on land and in the oceans |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=102 |issue=1–2 |year=2010 |pages=100–116 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.07.004|bibcode=2010ESRv..102..100B }}
Conodonts would reach their all-time low during this period, despite this, they are recovered from most marine Permian localities.{{cite book |last1=Wardlaw |first1=R. B. |chapter=Permian Conodonts |editor1=Scholle, P.A. |editor2=Peryt, T.M. |editor3=Ulmer-Scholle, D.S. |title=The Permian of Northern Pangea |date=1995 |pages=186–195 |publisher=Springer |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-78593-1_12|isbn=978-3-642-78595-5 }} Common conodonts from the Lopingian include the genera Clarkina and Hindeodus.
The Lopingian would see the decline of the Paleozoic ammonoid orders (Goniatitida and Prolecanitida) and the rise of the order Ceratitida, especially within the superfamily Xenodiscoidea.{{cite journal |last1=Leonova |first1=T.B. |year=2016 |title=Major trends in the evolution of Permian ammonoids |journal=Paleontological Journal |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=131–140 |doi=10.1134/S0031030116020039|bibcode=2016PalJ...50..131L }}
Only seven trilobites are known from the Lopingian, with only five by the end of the epoch. One of the last members of this clade was Kathwaia capitorosa.{{cite web |title=The last Trilobites |url=https://www.trilobites.info/lasttrilos.htm |website=www.Trilobites.info}}
Eurypterids were nearly extinct by this point, consisting of the possibly Lopingian Campylocephalus permicus of Russia; and the Changhsingian Woodwardopterus? freemanorum of Australia.{{cite journal |last1=Poschmann |first1=Marjus J. |last2=Rozefelds |first2=Andrew |title=The last eurypterid – a southern high-latitude record of sweep-feeding sea scorpion from Australia constrains the timing of their extinction |date=2022 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2021.1998033 |journal=Historical Biology |volume=34 |issue=10 |pages=2020–2030 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2021.1998033|bibcode=2022HBio...34.2020P }}
A member of the extant Horseshoe crab family, Limulidae; Guangyuanolimulus appears at the end of the period.{{Cite journal |last1=Hu |first1=Shixue |last2=Feldmann |first2=Rodney M. |last3=Schweitzer |first3=Carrie E. |last4=Benton |first4=Michael J. |last5=Huang |first5=Jinyuan |last6=Wen |first6=Wen |last7=Min |first7=Xiao |last8=Zhang |first8=Qiyue |last9=Zhou |first9=Changyong |last10=Ma |first10=Zhixin |date=2022-09-15 |title=A new horseshoe crab from the Permian-Triassic transition of South China: Xiphosurids as key components of post-extinction trophic webs |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018222003480 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=602 |pages=111178 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.111178 |issn=0031-0182}}
On land, gorgonopsians would become the apex predators after the extinction of the Dinocephalians, Other predators include the Therocephalians. Herbivorous animals of the Lopingian include the pareiasaurs such as Scutosaurus or dicynodonts, such as Dicynodon.
=Fossil gallery=
File:Smilesaurus skull.jpg|Smilesaurus ferox, one of the most fearsome predators of the Lopingian
File:Dicynodon.jpg|Skull of Dicynodon, a dicynodont.
File:Scutosaurus.jpg|Scutosaurus, a common herbivore during the late Permian
File:Paratirolites robustus (10.5852-ejt.2021.776.1559) Figure 26.png|Paratirolites, an ammonoid from the latest Permian (Changhsingian)
See also
- {{annotated link|Geologic time scale}}
- {{annotated link|Cisuralian}}