Editing Tetrapod (section)

====Permian ====
{{See also|List of Permian tetrapods}}
[[File:Diadectes1DB.jpg|thumb|right|230px|''[[Diadectes]]'' (a terrestrial diadectomorph, Early Permian)]]
In the [[Permian]] period, amniotes became particularly well-established, and two important clades filled in most terrestrial niches: the [[sauropsid]]s and the [[synapsid]]s. The latter were the most important and successful Permian land animals, establishing complex terrestrial ecosystems of predators and prey while acquiring various adaptations retained by their modern descendants, the mammals. Sauropsid diversity was more subdued during the Permian, but they did begin to fracture into several lineages ancestral to modern reptiles. Amniotes were not the only tetrapods to experiment with prolonged life on land. Some temnospondyls, [[Seymouriamorpha|seymouriamorphs]], and [[Diadectomorpha|diadectomorphs]] also successfully filled terrestrial niches in the earlier part of the Permian. Non-amniote tetrapods declined in the later part of the Permian.

The end of the Permian saw a major turnover in fauna during the [[Permian–Triassic extinction event]]. There was a protracted loss of species, due to multiple extinction pulses.<ref name="SahneyBenton2008RecoveryFromProfoundExtinction">{{cite journal |last1=Sahney |first1=Sarda |last2=Benton |first2=Michael J. |name-list-style=amp | year=2008 | title=Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time | journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | doi=10.1098/rspb.2007.1370 | volume=275 | pages=759–765 | pmid=18198148 | issue=1636 | pmc=2596898 }}</ref> Many of the once large and diverse groups died out or were greatly reduced.