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Era

Ordovician

or-duh-VISH-ee-un
Phanerozoic

The Ordovician is the second period of the Paleozoic Era, following the Cambrian and preceding the Silurian, spanning roughly 486.85 to 443.1 million years ago. Marine life diversified enormously during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, but the period closed with the Ordovician-Silurian extinction, the second-largest mass extinction in Earth history. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Rank
Period 1
Start (Million Years Ago)
486.85 1
Standard boundary age from the ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart; not independently re-dated by this atlas.
End (Million Years Ago)
443.1 1
Standard boundary age from the ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart; not independently re-dated by this atlas.
Key Event
The Ordovician-Silurian extinction events at the period's close eliminated about 49 percent of marine genera, with brachiopods, bryozoans, trilobites, conodonts and graptolites especially hard hit. 1
Connections

Anticipated By

Cambrian, Eras

Associated With

Late Ordovician Mass Extinction, Phenomena
Source Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (Wikipedia)

Has Geologic Rank

Geologic Period, Concepts

Precursor To

Silurian, Eras
Sources
1. Ordovician (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Introduction
    Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it had in the earlier Cambrian Period, although the end of the period was marked by the Ordovician-Silurian extinction events.
  • Article text
    At that time, all complex multicellular organisms were marine, and roughly 49% of all genera disappeared; brachiopods and bryozoans were heavily devastated, alongside severe losses among trilobite, conodont, and graptolite clades.
  • Climate
    The Early Ordovician climate was very hot, with intense greenhouse conditions and sea surface temperatures comparable to those during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum.
  • Classification
  • Timespan (start)
  • Timespan (end)
View the Source
Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Late Ordovician Mass ExtinctionView the Source
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