Abstract
The terminal Ordovician was marked by one of five great mass extinction events of the Phanerozoic (445.6–443.0 Ma ago), when up to 86% of the marine species became extinct. The rapid onset of the continental glaciation on Gondwana determined by its position in the South Pole area; the cooling; the hydrodynamic changes through the entire water column in the World Ocean; and the corresponding sea level fall, which was responsible for the reduction of shelf areas and shallow-water basins, i.e., the main ecological niche of the Ordovician marine biota, were main prerequisites of the stress conditions. Similar to other mass extinction events, these processes were accompanied by volcanism, impact events, a corresponding reduction of the photosynthesis and bioproductivity, the destruction of food chains, and anoxia. The appearance and development of terrestrial plants and microphytoplankton, which consumed atmospheric carbon dioxide, thus, diminishing the greenhouse effect and promoting the transition of the climatic system to the glacial mode, played a unique role in that period.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. S. Barash, “Causes and prime causes of mass biotic extinctions in the phanerozoic,” Dokl. Earth Sci. 445(2), 925–928 (2012).
H. A. Armstrong, “Biotic recovery after mass extinction: the role of climate and ocean-state in the post-glacial (Late Ordovician-Early Silurian) recovery of the conodonts,” in Biotic Recovery from Mass Extinction (Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., 1996), Vol. 102, pp. 105–117.
C. R. Barnes and S. M. Bergström, “Conodont biostratigraphy of the Uppermost Ordovician and lowermost Silurian,” Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. Hist. (Geol.) 43, 325–343 (1988).
A. D. Barnosky, N. Matzke, S. Tomiya, et al., “Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?” Nature 471, 51–57 (2011).
M. J. Benton, “Diversification and extinction in the history of life,” Science 268, 52–58 (1995).
S. M. Bergström, W. D. Huff, M. R. Saltzman, et al., “The greatest volcanic ash falls in the Phanerozoic: Trans-Atlantic relations of the Ordovician Millbrig and Kinnekulle K-bentonites,” Sediment. Rec. 2(4), 4–8 (2004).
W. B. N. Berry, M. S. Quinby-Hunt, and P. Wilde, “Impact of Late Ordovician Glaciation-Deglaciation on marine life,” in Effects of Past Global Change on Life: Studies in Geophysics (Natl. Acad. Press, Washington, D.C., 1995), pp. 34–46.
P. J. Brenchley, G. A. Carden, L. Hints, et al., “High-resolution stable isotope stratigraphy of Upper Ordovician sequences: Constraints on the timing of bioevents and environmental changes associated with mass extinction and glaciation,” GSA Bull. 115(1), 89–104 (2003).
P. J. Brenchley, J. D. Marshall, G. A. F. Carden, et al., “Bathymetric and isotopic evidence for a short-lived Late Ordovician glaciation in a greenhouse period,” Geology 22, 295–298 (1994).
W. Buggisch, M. M. Joachimski, O. Lehnert, et al., “Did intense volcanism trigger the first Late Ordovician icehouse?” Geology 38(4), 327–330 (2010).
Earth Impact Database, University of New Brunswick. http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/index.html. Assessed September 18, 2011
S. Finnegan, K. Bergmann, J. M. Eiler, et al., “The magnitude and duration of late Ordovician-early Silurian glaciation,” Science 331(6019), 903–906 (2011).
R. A. Fortey, “There are extinctions and extinctions: examples from the lower Paleozoic,” Philos. Trans. R. Soc., B 325, 327–355 (1989).
R. A. Fortey and L. R. M. Cocks, “Late Ordovician global warming — the Boda event,” Geology 33(5), 405–408 (2005). doi 10.1130/G21180.1
E. Gutmann, “Climate and evolution in times past,” Ars Technica, 2008. doi 10.1126/science.1155814.
A. Hallam and P. B. Wignall, Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath (Oxford Univ. Press, 1997).
B. U. Haq and S. R. Schutter, “A chronology of Paleozoic sea level changes,” Science 322, 64–68 (2008).
A. D. Herrmann, M. E. Patzkowsky, and D. Pollard, “Obliquity forcing with 8–12 times preindustrial levels of atmospheric pCO2 during the Late Ordovician glaciation,” Geology 31(6), 485–488 (2003).
T. M. Lenton, M. Crouch, M. Johnson, et al., “First plants cooled the Ordovician,” Nat. Geosci. 5, 86–89 (2012). doi: 10.1038/ngeo1390/
C. Mac Niocaill, B. A. van der Pluijm, and R. van der Voo, “Ordovician paleogeography and the evolution of the Iapetus ocean,” Geology 25, 159–162 (1997).
H. Qing, C. R. Barnes, D. Buhl, and J. Veizer, “The strontium isotopic composition of Ordovician and Silurian brachiopods and conodonts: relationships to geological events and implications for coeval seawater,” Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 62, 1721–1733 (1998).
R. A. Rohde, “Phanerozoic carbon dioxide (Global Warming Art project),” 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-dioxide-in-Earth’s-atmosphere
J. Rong, X. Chen, Z. Zhou, and J. Chen, “Response of major organism groups to global environmental perturbations through the Ordovician-Silurian transition in south China,” in The 33 Int. Geol. Congr. Oslo, August 6–14, 2008, Abstracts, HPF-13, 2008.
M. R. Saltzman and S. Y. Young, “Long-lived glaciation in the Late Ordovician? Isotopic and sequencestratigraphic evidence from western Laurentia,” Geology 33, 109–112 (2005).
B. Schmitz and S. M. Bergström, “Chemostratigraphy in the Swedish Upper Ordovician: regional significance of the Hirnantian δ13C excursion (HICE) in the Boda Limestone of the Siljan region,” GFFV 129, 133–140 (2007). doi 10.1080/11035890701292133.
J. J. Sepkoski, Jr., “Phanerozoic overview of mass extinctions,” in Patterns and Processes in the History of Life (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1986), pp. 277–295.
J. J. Sepkoski, Jr., “A model of onshore-offshore change in faunal diversity,” Paleobiology 17, 58–77 (1991).
J. J. Sepkoski, Jr., “Competition in macroevolution: the double wedge revisited,” in Evolutionary Paleobiology, Ed. by D. Jablonski, et al. (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1996), pp. 211–255.
T. Servais, O. Lehnert, J. Li, et al., “The Ordovician biodiversification: revolution in the oceanic trophic chain,” Lethaia 41, 99–109 (2008).
V. L. Sharpton, B. O. Dressler, R. R. Herrick, et al., “New constraints on the Slate Islands impact structure, Ontario, Canada,” Geology 24, 851–854 (1996).
P. M. Sheehan, “The Late Ordovician mass extinction,” Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 29, 331–364 (2001).
G. A. Shields, G. A. Carden, J. Veizer, et al., “Sr, C, and O isotope geochemistry of Ordovician brachiopods: a major isotopic event around the Middle-Late Ordovician transition,” Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 2005–2025 (2003).
O. E. Sutcliffe, J. A. Dowdeswell, R. J. Whittington, et al., “Calibrating the Late Ordovician glaciation and mass extinction by the eccentricity cycles of Earth’s orbit,” Geology 28, 967–970 (2000).
M. E. Tuckey and R. L. Anstey, “Late Ordovician extinction of bryozoans,” Lethaia 25, 111–117 (1992).
B. D. Webby, F. Paris, M. L. Droser, et al., The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 2004).
D. Yan, D. Chen, Q. Wang, et al., “Carbon and sulfur isotopic anomalies across the Ordovician-Silurian boundary on the Yangtze Platform, South China,” Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 274, 32–39 (2009).
S. A. Young, M. R. Saltzman, W. I. Ausich, et al., “Did changes in atmospheric CO2 coincide with latest Ordovician glacial-interglacial cycles?” Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 296, 376–388 (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © M.S. Barash, 2014, published in Okeanologiya, 2014, Vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 825–832.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Barash, M.S. Mass extinction of the marine biota at the Ordovician-Silurian transition due to environmental changes. Oceanology 54, 780–787 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437014050014
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437014050014