The Ordovician Period: Life at Its Peak

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The Ordovician Period marked one of the most biologically rich chapters in Earth history. Spanning from around 485 to 444 million years ago, this era witnessed a dramatic expansion of life in the oceans, a process known as the Ordovician Radiation. Shallow seas covered vast portions of the continents, creating ideal conditions for marine ecosystems to flourish.

During the Ordovician Period, the seafloor became densely populated with brachiopods, bryozoans, trilobites, mollusks, and crinoids, while graptolites drifted through the water column. Early vertebrates such as jawless fishes began to appear, and complex reef-like environments formed for the first time. These Ordovician period animals created layered, interconnected ecosystems that pushed the evolution of life to new levels.

Among the most influential organisms were early cephalopods, including large orthoconic nautiloids, which emerged as some of the most effective predators of their time. Fossil evidence from Ordovician fossils reveals how this growing ecological complexity reshaped marine food webs.

Yet this peak of life proved fragile. Near the end of the Ordovician era, rapid climatic changes led to the Ordovician extinction, one of the first major mass extinctions in Earth’s history. This Ordovician period documentary explores life at its height, just before a profound planetary turning point.

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