Permian Permian The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic period 251.902 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic era; the following Triassic period belongs to the Mesozoic era. The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the city of Perm. The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs, and archosaurs. The world at the time was
Swithland Wood and The Brand high mountain range, the processes of erosion began. By the Triassic Period, (240 million years ago) the mountains were eroded down to something like their current height. There then began a new deposition, this time of desert sand and fine dust, that produced a new layer of soft red marl, creating the gentler rolling appearance of the land, with just the tips of the older rocks reaching the surface. Over most of Swithland Wood the marl is the surface rock type (although the slate beds will occur underneath that). Finally, during the ice age, glacial erosion stripped back the Triassic