The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan and dates between 298.9 ± 0.15 – 272.3 ± 0.5 Ma.

[10] The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan.

[14] The base of the Cisuralian series and the Permian system is defined as the place in the stratigraphic record where fossils of the conodont Streptognathodus isolatus first appear.

The global reference profile for the base (the GSSP or golden spike) is located in the valley of the Aidaralash River, near Aqtöbe in the Ural Mountains of Kazakhstan.

[11] The coal swamps from the Carboniferous declined[24] but the herbivores, Diadectes and Edaphosaurus persisted until the end of this series, approximately.

Early Permian terrestrial faunas were dominated by pelycosaurs (a paraphyletic group of early synapsids), diadectids, and temnospondyls,[28][29] The pelycosaurs appeared during the Late Carboniferous, and reached their apex in the Cisuralian remaining the dominant land animals for some 40 million years.