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Ordovician

Posted inEditors' Highlights

What Conditions Accompanied the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?

by Susan Trumbore 20 January 202217 February 2023

The second-largest mass extinction in Earth’s history took place in a period of stresses from non-sulfidic anoxia in shelf areas, together with glacioeustatic sea-level change and climatic cooling.

A coastal cliff in Newfoundland with visibly stratified rock
Posted inNews

Geologists Have a New Tool for Reconstructing the Ancient Climate

by Clara Chaisson 15 March 202117 February 2023

A new study of seafloor sediments finds that the temperature record in the early Paleozoic corresponds to significant shifts in the diversity of life on Earth.

Mountains rise over a desert vista
Posted inNews

Earth’s Eccentric Orbit Helped Preserve Rare Soft-Tissue Fossils

Nola Taylor Redd, Science Writer by Nola Taylor Tillman 26 April 201930 January 2023

Cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit helped to preserve rare fossils in Morocco.

Drawing of sea life that flourished after the Ordovician Period ended with a mass extinction event 445 million years ago.
Posted inNews

Tiny Algae May Have Prompted a Mass Extinction

Katherine Kornei, Science Writer by Katherine Kornei 11 July 201830 January 2023

Dead algae sinking to the ocean floor may have sequestered carbon 445 million years ago, triggering the glaciation that accompanied the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

Posted inNews

A Volcanic Trigger for Earth’s First Mass Extinction?

Lucas Joel by L. Joel 30 May 201730 January 2023

Abnormally high levels of mercury in Ordovician rocks may imply that a huge surge of volcanism took place at a time when much of the planet’s ocean life vanished.

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