The Permian extinction

Im highly curious, what was on the earth before dinosaurs... i know evolution was at work, And such, but what was before there was even sea creatures swimming around!?!?!!? every ones so focused about the Cretaceous extinction... we've never really studied the previous ones.... Wouldn't it be ironic if that was our downfall... I believe that most extinctions are from some form of destruction in the food chain... thus sending shockwaves to many species killing off many....Or from something in the eco system...

Dude, you need to watch walking with monsters. Best Paleazoic documentary ever! And before even the Cambrian and the Ediacarans. Just water, cells, and a crap load of volcanic explosions and meteorite hits. And btw, maybe so, but was it a meteorite impact, volcanic activity? What's the major culprit here? Ohh, and you also need to watch Animal Armegeddon. It has all the mass extinctions our planet has ever faced, and many of those episodes are Paleozoic era extinctions, so they're before the dinosaurs. The first one was in the Silurian era and it helped super size the Eurypterid into a gigantic Pterygotis

Btw, walking with monsters is on Netflix, Animal Armegeddon is on YouTube. Anyway, back to the main topic. I know that eventually the food chain collapsed and the environment kinda fell apart, but what caused all that? A meteorite impact? Volcanic activity? I'd like to know what you guys think is the major culprit and why.

Well, at this time, Pangaea was forming. This would have caused environment to become drier. I feel this would have had something to do with it. Droughts would have caused plants to whither, herbivores die followed by the predators. Reptiles that could slow their heartbeat and "hibernate" along with a few other creatures would have made it through. My opinion. [img]http://olympics.wikibruce.com/images/thumb/6/6b/6_2_Pangaea.jpg/320px-6_2_Pangaea.jpg[/img]