The Carboniferous ends
The swamps are gone, the reptiles are ascendant, and the world is drying out.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Permian, Paleozoic
The period closes at 298.9 million years ago with Pangaea assembled, ice still on Gondwana, and the great coal swamps largely replaced by drier vegetation. Amniotes have inherited the land and the synapsid branch is beginning to produce large predators. Ahead lies the Permian — and at its end, the worst catastrophe life has ever faced.