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The Silurian (/ s ɪ ˈ lj ʊər i. ən, s aɪ-/ sih-LURE-ee-ən, sy-) [8] [9] [10] is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.1 million years ago (), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.62 Mya. [11]
The Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME), sometimes known as the end-Ordovician mass extinction or the Ordovician-Silurian extinction, is the first of the "big five" major mass extinction events in Earth's history, occurring roughly 445 million years ago (Ma). [1]
The Ordovician–Silurian extinction events may have been caused by an ice age that occurred at the end of the Ordovician Period, due to the expansion of the first terrestrial plants, [54] as the end of the Late Ordovician was one of the coldest times in the last 600 million years of Earth's history.
In the geological timescale, the Llandovery Epoch (from 443.8 ± 1.5 million years ago to 433.4 ± 0.8 million years ago) occurred at the beginning of the Silurian Period. . The Llandoverian Epoch follows the massive Ordovician-Silurian extinction events, which led to a large decrease in biodiversity and an opening up of ecosyste
This timeline of Silurian research is a chronological listing of events in the history of geology and paleontology focused on the study of Earth during the span of time lasting from 443.4–419.2 million years ago; the Silurian, and the legacies of this period in the rock and fossil records.
Brachiopods, bryozoans and echinoderms were also heavily affected, and the endocerid cephalopods died out completely, except for possible rare Silurian forms. The Ordovician-Silurian Extinction Events may have been caused by an ice age that occurred at the end of the Ordovician period as the end of the Late Ordovician was one of the coldest ...
During the Late Silurian and Devonian, land plants, assisted by fungi, [45] [46] underwent a hugely significant phase of evolution known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution. [47] [48] Their maximum height went from 30 cm at the start of the Devonian, to 30 m archaeopterids, [49] at the end of the period.
The Lau event was the last of three relatively minor mass extinctions (the Ireviken, Mulde, and Lau events) during the Silurian period. [4] It had a major effect on the conodont fauna, but barely scathed the graptolites, though they suffered an extinction very shortly thereafter termed the Kozlowskii event that some authors have suggested was coeval with the Lau event and only appears ...