The Permian period (299–252 Million years old) is that time interval immediately before the rise of the dinosaurs. It began with an ice age and ended with the largest mass extinction event in Earth’s history. Australia’s Permian strata contain a rather meagre record of vertebrate fossils. Vertebrates are those animals with a backbone. In the modern world, that includes everything from fish to birds and mammals but, in the Permian, the vertebrate groups present were fish, amphibians and reptiles. Australia’s sparse vertebrate record stands in contrast to some other parts of the world, such as the Karoo Basin in South Africa, which is endowed with a rich record of bones and teeth, particularly from early mammal-like reptiles.