image: A photo showing the GSSP square of the Meishan Geopark with a monument topped with a cast of Hindeodus parvus which approximately points the Permian-Triassic boundary in a distal quarry. The Meishan Section has been ratified as the GSSPs of both the base of Changhsingian Stage and the base of Triassic. It becomes the unique body stratotype of the last stage (Changhsingian Stage) of the Paleozoic which recorded the largest mass extinction during the Phanerozoic. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Nov. 17, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The paper, by Shu-zhong Shen at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in Nanjing, China, and colleagues, was titled, “Calibrating the End-Permian Mass Extinction.” view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Shuzhong Shen