Traditionally, taxonomic data from the body fossil record has served as the primary source of information on faunal trends through the Phanerozoic. From such data, paleobiologists have documented that among the several biodiversity crises suffered by eukaryotes, including the so-called ‘big five’mass extinction events, the end-Permian crisis is the most dramatic biological catastrophe [2,27]. The species loss for marine faunas is estimated at over 90%, while plants and animals on land also suffered widespread extinctions [7,9,17]. In addition, data from the body fossil record show that for the entire Early Triassic, and in some cases continuing into the Middle Triassic, biodiversity continued to remain low, implying that repopulation of the biosphere proceeded exceptionally slowly [4,17].