ORDOVICIAN

The Ordovician period started 488.3 million years ago and ended 443.7 million years ago.

The Ordovician was named by the British geologist Charles Lapworth in 1879. He took the name from an ancient Celtic tribe, the Ordovices, renowned for its resistance to Roman
domination.

The high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere caused a strong greenhouse effect and thus the climate was very hot in the beginning of the period. Sea water temperatures are assumed
to have averaged 45 °C (113 °F), so the diversification of complex multi-cellular organism was very limited. However, over time, the climate became cooler and around 460 million years ago
the ocean temperatures became comparable to those of present-day equatorial waters. Plants were not yet evolved with the exception of a variety of macroscopic marine plants.

The Ordovician is best known for its diverse marine invertebrates, including graptolites, trilobites, brachiopods, and the conodonts (early vertebrates). A typical marine community consisted
of these animals, plus red and green algae, primitive fish, cephalopods, corals, crinoids, and gastropods. More recently, tetrahedral spores that are similar to those of primitive terrestrial
plants have been found, suggesting that plants invaded the land at this time.
Ordovician globe (you can touch the screen and rotate the globe)

During the Ordovician, most of the world's land — southern Europe, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia — was connected together in the supercontinent
called Gondwana. Throughout the Ordovician, Gondwana shifted towards the South Pole where it finally came to rest by the end of the period. In the Lower Ordovician,
North America roughly straddled the equator and almost all of that continent was submerged.
Anaconularia anomala (Barrande, 1867) had elongated, pyramidal exoskeletons, made up of rows
of calcium phosphate rods. Most were square- or rectangular-shaped in cross section with
prominent grooves at the corners. They lived attached to hard objects by a flexible stalk and often
lived in groups. Presumably, they were filter feeders; it is not known how they reproduced.

Deanaspis seftenbergi (Hawle & Corda, 1847)

It is rather small compared to average sized trinucleoid trilobites. They
first occurred at the start of the Ordovician and became extinct at the
end of that period. The most noticeable character is the wide
perforated fringe of the head. The pits were considered to have a
sensory or food filtering function.
Cystoid Aristocystites bohemicus (Barrande, 1887)
Cystoidea is a class of extinct echinoderms, that lived attached to the sea bed by stalks. Cystoids are distinguished from other echinoderms by triangular pore
openings. The mouth was at the upper pole of the body and the opposite end attached to the substratum, often by a stalk - although some stalkless species did
exist. The anus was positioned on the side of the body.
Dendrocystites barrandei (Bather, 1889)
Carpoid is a member of an extinct group of unusual echinoderms (modern echinoderms include starfish, sea urchins and sea lilies).
The carpoids generally had flat bodies, covered with calcite plates with a number of openings. In some cases, their form was so unusual that it is unclear which
openings are to be considered mouth and anus.
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Dalmanitina socialis (Barrande, 1846)
Dalmanitina is genus of trilobites with an average
(about 8 centimetres), moderately vaulted
exoskeleton with an inverted egg-shaped outline
with the length approximately 1,5 times bigger
than its width. The thorax is composed of eleven
segments, with the relatively large pygidium with
a slender axis of 11 to 16 rings and 6 or 7 pleural
ribs. The pygidium ends in a striking tail spike.

Upper Ordovician seabed with Dalmanitina

trilobites, Conularia, Duslia (enigmatic arthropod
distinguished by a characteristic fringe of spines
around the body, appendages are not known and
no eyes) and swimming Selenopeltis trilobite.
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