The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

About this book

Two of the greatest evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth occurred during Early Paleozoic time. The first was the Cambrian explosion of skeletonized marine animals about 540 million years ago. The second was the "Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event", which is the focus of this book. During the 46-million-year Ordovician Period (489–443 m.y.), a bewildering array of adaptive radiations of "Paleozoic- and Modern-type" biotas appeared in marine habitats, the first animals (arthropods) walked on land, and the first non-vascular bryophyte-like plants (based on their cryptospore record) colonized terrestrial areas with damp environments.

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event represents a compilation by a large team of Ordovician specialists from around the world, who have enthusiastically cooperated to produce this first globally orientated, internationally sponsored IGCP (International Geological Correlation Program) project on Ordovician biotas. The major part is an assembly of genus- and species-level diversity data for the many Ordovician fossil groups. The book also presents an evaluation of how each group diversified through Ordovician time, with assessments of patterns of change and rates of origination and extinction. As such, it will become the standard work and data source for biotic studies on the Ordovician Period.

Contents

- Scaling Of Ordovician Time, And Measures For Assessing Biodiversity Change
- Introduction, by Barry D. Webby and Florentin Paris
- Conspectus Of The Ordovician World
- Stratigraphic Framework and Time Slices, by Barry D. Webby, Roger A. Cooper, Stig M. Bergstrˆm and Florentin Paris
- Taxonomic Groups
- Calibration of the Ordovician Time Scale, by Peter M. Sadler and Roger A. Cooper
- Aspects Of The Ordovician Radiation
- Measures of Biodiversity, by Roger A. Cooper
- Major Terranes in the Ordovician, by L. Robin M. Cocks and Trond H. Torsvik
- Isotopic Signatures, by Graham A. Shields and J·n Veizer
- Ordovician Oceans and Climate, by Christopher R. Barnes
- Was there an Ordovician Superplume Event?, by Christopher R. Barnes
- End-Ordovician Glaciation, by Patrick J. Brenchley
- Sea-level Changes - a Baltoscandian Perspective, by Arne Thorsh¯j Nielson
- Radiolarians, by Paula J. Noble and Taniel Danelian
- Sponges, by Marcelo Carrera and J. Keith Rigby
- Stromatoporoids, by Barry D. Webby
- Conulariids, by Heyo Van Iten and Zdenka Brabcov·
- Corals, by Barry D. Webby, Robert J. Elias, Graham A. Young, Bjˆrn E.E. Neuman and Dimitri
- Bryozoans, by Paul D Taylor and Andrej Ernst
- Brachiopods, by David A.T. Harper, L. Robin M. Cocks, Leonid E. Popov, Peter M. Sheehan, Michael
- Polyplacophoran and Symmetrical Univalve Molluscs, by Lesley Cherns, David M. Rohr and JirÌ Fryda
- Gastropods, by JirÌ Fryda and David M. Rohr
- Rostroconch and Bivalve Molluscs, by John C.W. Cope
- Nautiloid Cephalopods, by Robert C. Frey, Matilde S. Beresi, David H. Evans, Alan H. King and Ian G. Perci
- Tube-Shaped Incertae Sedis, by John M. Malinky, Mark A. Wilson, Lars E. Holmer and Hubert Lardeux
- Worms, Worm-like and Sclerite-bearing Taxa, by Olle Hints, Mats Eriksson, Anette E.S. Hˆgstrˆm, Petr Kraft and Oliver Lehnert
- Trilobites, by Jonathan M. Adrain, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Richard A. Fortey, ÿyvind Hammer, John
- Eurypterids, Phyllocarids and Ostracodes, by Simon J. Braddy, Victor P. Tollerton Jr., Patrick Racheboeuff, and Roger Schallr
- Asterozoan, Echinozoan, Blastozoan, Crinozoan and Homalozoan Echinoderms, by James Sprinkle and Thomas E. Guensburg
- Graptolites: Patterns of Diversity across Paleolatitudes, by Roger A. Cooper, Jˆrg Maletz, Lindsey Taylor and Jan Zalasiewicz
- Chitinozoans, by Florentin Paris, AÔcha Achab, Esther Asselin, Xiao-hong Chen, Jaak NÐlvak, Yngve
- Conodonts: Lower-Middle Ordovician Record, by Guillermo L. Albanesi and Stig M. Bergstrˆm
- Vertebrates (Agnathans and Gnathostomes), by Susan Turner, Alain Blieck and Godfrey S. Nowlan
- Receptaculitids and Algae, by Matthew H. Nitecki, Barry D. Webby, Nils Spjeldnaes and Yong-yi Zhen
- Acritarchs, by Thomas Servais, Jun Li, Ludovic Stricanne, Marco Vecoli and Reed Wicander
- Miospores and the Emergence of Land Plants, by Phillippe Steemans and Charles Wellman
- The Ichnologic Record of the Ordovician Radiation, by M. Gabriela M·ngano and Mary L. Droser
- The Ordovician Radiation: Towards a New Global Synthesis, by Arnold I. Miller

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Biography

Barry D. Webby is a senior palaeontologist at the Center for Ecostratigraphy & Paleobiology at Macquarie University, Sydney. Florentin Paris is a CNRS research director in geosciences at the University of Rennes, France. Mary L. Droser is a professor in the Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside. Ian G. Percival is chief palaeontologist at the Geological Survey of New South Wales, Australia.