The Permian time period lasted from 286 to 245 million
years ago, a time span of 41 million years. The Permian is the last period
of the Paleozoic Era. The term Permian was first used in the late 1840s
to describe a sequence of rocks in the Russian province of Perm, east
of the Volga River. These Permian rocks were defined based on a particular
type of fossil assemblage contained within them. They are located above
the rocks of the Pennsylvanian System and below
the rocks of the Triassic System.