The role of marine microphytoplankton in the Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Abstract

The Ordovician fossil record provides evidence of the most rapid, long sustained burst of biotic diversification in the history of marine life on Earth (The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, Webby et alii, 2004). Radiation events during Early and Middle Ordovician times caused the tripling of marine biodiversity and the establishment of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic evolutionary faunas which have the greater relevance to present-day biotic communities. Throughout the Ordovician, great ecological changes were associated with intense tectonic and volcanic activity and major reorganization of the plate-tectonic global assembly.

Keywords

• Ordovician radiation
• fossil diversity
• biodiversification
• microphytoplankton
• acritarchs
• primary production