The Ghost Terrane Hypothesis: A Unified Explanation for the Middle–Late Permian Synapsid Fossil Gap and the Triggering of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province Article Swipe

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Feind, Aaron ·

YOU? · · 2025 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17741990

The 20-million-year middle–late Permian gap in the synapsid fossil record (ca. 272–252 Ma) remains one of the largest missing intervals in vertebrate evolution, immediately followed by the explosive radiation of advanced cynodonts and dicynodonts across the earliest Triassic Pangaea. Simultaneously, the end-Permian Siberian Traps LIP—the main driver of the largest mass extinction—is increasingly linked to slab-driven destabilisation of the Siberian craton during closure of the Paleo-Tethys. Here I propose that both phenomena share a single tectonic cause: the existence and subsequent subduction of a now-vanished micro-continent or intra-oceanic arc system that acted as an isolated refugium for synapsids during the gap, and whose final underthrusting beneath northern Pangaea triggered the Traps and delivered pre-adapted therapsid lineages onto the supercontinent just before the extinction.

Related Topics

Supercontinent

Paleontology

Familial Mediterranean Fever

Concepts

Geology Supercontinent Paleontology Terrane Pangaea Permian Craton Subduction Paleozoic Gondwana Acritarch Tectonics Paleomagnetism Stromatolite Laurasia Tetrapod (structure) Continental arc Phanerozoic Refugium (fishkeeping) Demonization

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Type: preprint
Language: en
Landing Page: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17741990
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17741990

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Title: The Ghost Terrane Hypothesis: A Unified Explanation for the Middle–Late Permian Synapsid Fossil Gap and the Triggering of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province

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Language: en

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Publication year: 2025

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Authors: Feind, Aaron

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Landing page: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17741990

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Concepts: Geology, Supercontinent, Paleontology, Terrane, Pangaea, Permian, Craton, Subduction, Paleozoic, Gondwana, Acritarch, Tectonics, Paleomagnetism, Stromatolite, Laurasia, Tetrapod (structure), Continental arc, Phanerozoic, Refugium (fishkeeping), Demonization

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