Three magnetic components have been isolated in Ordovician formations of the Yangtze Paraplatform (South China Block). Two of these (Daqing A and Hongshiya B components) yield paleopoles that conform to the Carboniferous to Triassic segment of the apparent polar w•der path for South China, and are therefore interpreted as remagnetizations. The third component (declination/inclination = 30!ø/+66...

Late Cambrian to early Ordovician trilobites, the family Olenidae, were tolerant of oxygen-poor, sulfur-rich sea floor conditions, and a case is made that they were chemoautotrophic symbionts. Olenids were uniquely adapted to this habitat in the Lower Paleozoic, which was widespread in the Late Cambrian over Scandinavia. This life habit explains distinctive aspects of olenid morphology: wide th...

Contrasts between the Cambrian Explosion (CE) and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) have long been recognized. Whereas the vast majority of body plans were established as a result of the CE, taxonomic increases during the GOBE were manifested at lower taxonomic levels. Assessing changes of ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity as a result of these two evolutionary events may shed...

Ordovician conodont collections from several Argentinian basins including the Eastern Cordillera, Famatina and Precordillera allow recognition of a group conodonts that comprise new genus here named Condorodus n. gen. Species this have an apparatus composed six elements recovered so far: Pa, Pb, Sb1, Sb2, Sc Sd. The differences mainly between P support recognizing three species, older to younge...

Selectivity patterns provide insights into the causes of ancient extinction events. The Late Ordovician mass extinction was related to Gondwanan glaciation; however, it is still unclear whether elevated extinction rates were attributable to record failure, habitat loss, or climatic cooling. We examined Middle Ordovician-Early Silurian North American fossil occurrences within a spatiotemporally ...

Conodonts representing 38 species of 26 genera have been identified in samples from Upper Ordovician rocks at three central Nevada localities. Ranges of these species and associated graptolites are used graphically to determine correlation of the strata considered with an evolving composite standard that includes information from Ordovician strata at more than 100 localities in North America. R...

The Ordovician radiation of marine life was among the most substantial pulses of diversification in Earth history and coincided in time with a major increase in the global level of orogenic activity. To investigate a possible causal link between these two patterns, the geographic distributions of 6576 individual appearances of Ordovician vician genera around the world were evaluated with respec...

Mass extinction events are recognized by increases in extinction rate and magnitude and, often, by changes in the selectivity of extinction. When considering the selective fingerprint of a particular event, not all taxon extinctions are equally informative: some would be expected even under a 'background' selectivity regime, whereas others would not and thus require special explanation. When ev...