The Beaufort Group of the main Karoo Basin of South Africa records two major extinction events of terrestrial vertebrates in the late Palaeozoic. The oldest of these has been dated to the late Capitanian and is characterized by the extinction of dinocephalian therapsids and bradysaurian pareiasaurs near the top of Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Faunal turnover associated with the extinction of dinocephalians is evident in vertebrate faunas from elsewhere in Pangaea but it can be best studied in the Karoo Basin, where exposures of the upper Abrahamskraal and lower Teekloof formations allow continuous sampling across the whole extinction interval. Here we present field data for several sections spanning the Capitanian extinction interval in the southwestern Karoo and discuss recent work to establish its timing, severity, and causes. A large collections database informed by fieldwork demonstrates an increase in extinction rates associated with ecological instability that approach that of the end-Permian mass extinction, and shows significant turnover followed by a period of low diversity. Extinctions and recovery appear phased and show similarities to diversity patterns reported for the end-Permian mass extinction higher in the Beaufort sequence. In the Karoo, the late Capitanian mass extinction coincides with volcanism in the Emeishan Large Igneous Province and may have been partly driven by short-term aridification, but clear causal mechanisms and robust links to global environmental phenomena remain elusive.

南非主要卡鲁盆地的博福特群记录了古生代晚期的两次主要的陆地脊椎动物灭绝事件。这些中最古老的可追溯到Capitanian晚期，其特征是恐龙头顶部的巨头龙和腕龙的绝种消失了。cephal头组装区。在Pangea的其他地方的脊椎动物中，与恐龙头动物灭绝相关的动物更新很明显，但是最好在Karoo盆地中进行研究，那里的上亚伯拉罕斯克拉尔和下特克卢夫形成层的暴露使得可以在整个灭绝间隔内进行连续采样。在这里，我们介绍了西南Karoo跨越Capitanian灭绝间隔的几个部分的现场数据，并讨论了确定其时间，严重程度和原因的最新工作。通过实地考察获得的大型馆藏数据库显示，与生态不稳定性相关的灭绝速度有所增加，接近二叠纪末期生物大灭绝的速度，并且显示出大量的营业额以及随后的低多样性时期。灭绝和恢复似乎是分阶段的，并且与报道的波弗特序列中较高的二叠纪末期生物灭绝的多样性模式相似。在卡鲁（Karoo），Capitanian的晚期大灭绝与峨眉山大火成岩省的火山活动相吻合，可能部分是由短期干旱化驱动的，但是仍然没有明确的因果机制以及与全球环境现象的牢固联系。