Long before the dawn of humans, dinosaurs, insects or even trees, a cascade of unfortunate events threatened to end life on earth. During the Ordovician Period, around 485 to 444 million years ago, ...

It came during the Ordovician period, right after the Cambrian came to a close 485 million years ago. ... like brachiopods, crinoids, ostracodes, cephalopods, corals, and bryozoans.

A major group of brachiopods are the strophomenids, of which Rafinesquina was one. Characterized by wide flat shells that measure a couple of inches across (large for a brachiopod), millions of ...

Rich brachiopod fossils dating back 470 million years to the Ordovician period were discovered in Zigui county, Central China’s Hubei Province. Experts suggest these fossils provide evidence for ...

Some 85 per cent of all species perished during the Late Ordovician die-off about 444 million years ago – a time when the vast majority of life was marine-based and most of our present day ...

The great increase in biodiversity took place during the geological period known as the Ordovician. - This was a time in Earth history previously believed to be characterized by extreme CO2 levels ...

Sponges may be simple creatures, but they basically ruled the world some 445 million years ago, after the Ordovician mass extinction, a new study finds. Roughly 85 percent of all species died in ...