A large-scale, gradual transition from an epicontinental marine regime, prevailing during most of the Paleozoic, to continental (?molasse) red beds of Upper Triassic and younger age is documented within the Permo-Triassic sequence of marine carbonate and siliciclastic rocks of the western Yangzi Platform in southern China. Large portions of the Yangzi Platform (along with the Tarim and Sino-Korea Platforms, one of the three large Precambrian cratons of China which was accreted to Paleo-Eurasia within the Paleozoic) were part of the northern continental shelf of the Upper Paleozoic Tethyan Ocean. The facies of the Yangzi Platform sedimentary cover (thickness exceeding 10,000 m) was largely controlled by basement tectonics and eustatic sea-level changes. Paleontological, sedimentological and paleomagnetic data suggest an equation/subtropical position of the area during the Permo-Triassic.