Ordovician
Also known as Ordovician Period, Ordovician System
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Ordovician spans 43.75 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period Ma (million years ago) to the start of the Silurian Period Ma.
AI overview
The Ordovician is a geologic period that occurred roughly 485 to 444 million years ago, making it the second major division of the Paleozoic Era. It matters because it represents a significant chapter in Earth's history when the planet's geology and life forms were evolving in important ways between the Cambrian and Silurian periods.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Geologic timespan.name
- Ordovician
- Geologic timespan.color
- Ordovician
- Geologic timespan.image_map
- Mollweide Paleographic Map of Earth, 465 Ma (Darriwilian Age).png
- Geologic timespan.caption_map
- A map of Earth as it appeared 465 million years ago during the Middle Ordovician Epoch
- Geologic timespan.timeline
- Ordovician
- Geologic timespan.name_formality
- Formal
- Geologic timespan.name_accept_date
- 1960
- Geologic timespan.celestial_body
- earth
- Geologic timespan.usage
- Global (ICS)
- Geologic timespan.timescales_used
- ICS Time Scale
- Geologic timespan.chrono_unit
- Period
- Geologic timespan.strat_unit
Article
12 sectionsContents
- Subdivisions{{anchor|Subdivisions}}
- Paleogeography and tectonics
- Ordovician meteor event
- Geochemistry
- Climate and sea level
- Life
- Fauna
- Flora
- Microbiota
- End of the period
- References
- External links
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Ordovician spans 43.75 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period Ma (million years ago) to the start of the Silurian Period Ma.
The Ordovician, named after the Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, who were placing the same rock beds in North Wales in the Cambrian and Silurian systems, respectively. Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian systems, and placed them in a system of their own. The Ordovician received international approval in 1960 (forty years after Lapworth's death), when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress.
Gallery (36)
On the map
6 mapped locations