Ordovician Period

488-444 million years ago

•460 mya - Eurypterids Appear

•450 mya – Chondrichthyes •444 mya – Mass

extinction

460 million years ago

Eurypterids Appear• “Sea Scorpion”

• Largest arthropod to ever live (2 meters or 6 feet long)• Predator of the sea

450 million years ago

Ostracoderms• Jawless Fish

• Bony plated armor• Cartilage “skeleton”

444 million years ago

Mass Extinctionmarks the end of the Ordovician most likely

due to glaciation of Gondwana…

New Organisms that Appear

•Cephalopods•Brachiopods•Crinoids

•Ostracoderms

What does it look like?

ContinentsGondwana

• Australia• Africa• Southern Europe• Antarctica • South America

Gondwana gradually moved toward the South Pole until it covered the pole at the end of the period. Most

of Gondwana was covered by water during the Ordovician.

North America and EuropeNorth America, Western Europe and Northern Europe

were located in the tropics. These land areas were sometimes covered with water and sometimes not.

Picture It• Were there terrestrial animals or plants?• What would the land have looked like?• Was all life found in the sea or marine

environments?

THERE WAS NO LIFE ON LAND STILL!Ordovician was the time where marine

life diversified!