Although no fossils of land animals are known from the Ordovician, burrows and trackways from the Late Ordovician of Pennsylvania have been interpreted as produced by animals similar to millipedes. A millipede-like organism is inferred because the burrows occur in discrete size classes, are bilaterally symmetrical, and were backfilled by the burrowing organism. The burrows are found in a preserved soil and are associated with carbonate concretions that precipitated within the soil, indicating that the burrows were produced at the time of soil formation. The presence of plants and possibly arthropods suggests that Ordovician terrestrial ecosystems may have been more extensive and complex than generally thought.

Diversification of life

During the Ordovician Period, life diversified to an unprecedented degree, undergoing a fourfold increase in the number of genera. This unique period, known as the Ordovician radiation, unfolded over tens of millions of years and produced organisms that would dominate marine ecosystems for the remainder of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician radiation was an extension of the Cambrian explosion, an event during which all modern marine phyla appeared (with the exception of the bryozoans, which emerged during the Ordovician). The Ordovician continued this diversification at lower levels of taxonomy and saw a rapid increase in the amount of habitats and ecological niches exploited by living things, as well as an increase in the complexity of biological communities.

The number of marine genera in most of the Early Ordovician Epoch was comparable to that seen in the Cambrian Period and had comparable rates of species turnover or extinction. By the latest age of the Early Ordovician Epoch, trilobites and other organisms dominant in the Cambrian were replaced by a wide range of other marine invertebrates, including corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, mollusks, echinoderms, graptolites, and conodonts. One theory posits that diversification reached a peak by the first age of the Late Ordovician Epoch, with minor fluctuations. On the other hand, it has also been argued that this early Late Ordovician “peak” only represents a higher-quality fossil record than that of later Ordovician times. When this difference is accounted for, diversity is seen to rise to a plateau by the Middle Ordovician, after which it changes little.

The timing of diversification differs for each group of organisms and on each of the Ordovician continents. For example, graptolites reached their peak diversity in the Early Ordovician Epoch, whereas gastropods continued to diversify steadily through the entire Ordovician Period. Similarly, overall diversity on the cratons of Laurentia and Baltica peaked in the early Late Ordovician Epoch, whereas diversity peaked in South China in the Early Ordovician Epoch. These intercontinental differences suggest that global diversification was driven by changes unique to each continent rather than by a single global factor.

Exploitation of habitats

The Ordovician radiation began in shallow marine environments and proceeded into deeper water. Newer fauna intermingled with older Cambrian fauna, which was primarily made up of various trilobites and inarticulate (unjointed) brachiopods living in a wide range of environments between the shore and the continental slope. In the Early Ordovician Epoch, articulate (jointed) brachiopods, gastropods, and cephalopods appeared in shallow-water habitats as inarticulate brachiopods and trilobites declined in those habitats. Through the remainder of the Ordovician Period, articulate brachiopods and gastropods continued to spread farther offshore as trilobites and inarticulate brachiopods became rarer in all but deepwater habitats. Finally, in the Late Ordovician Epoch, bivalve communities appeared in shallow-water habitats and displaced the brachiopod-gastropod communities offshore.

Much of the increase in biodiversity occurring during the Ordovician Period took place within biological communities formed during the Cambrian Period. New species made use of unexploited niches within these communities. Another large portion of this new diversity came from increased provinciality—that is, the differences in the species present between one continent and another. Since most species did not expand beyond their own local regions, the species assemblages of many areas were unique, and few species were distributed globally. Diversity was also increased because of the expansion of life into new habitats not present in the Cambrian, such as reefs, hardgrounds, bryozoan thickets, and crinoid gardens.

Ordovician communities were ecologically more complicated than Cambrian ones. The Ordovician saw the rise of several new life habits, including deep-deposit feeders, mobile epifaunal (superficially attached) carnivores, and pelagic (open-water) carnivores. In contrast to Cambrian communities that lived very close to the sediment surface, Ordovician communities also grew up to 50 cm (1.5 feet) above the seafloor and established distinct tiers, or levels, similar to those present in modern forests. Also, invertebrates burrowed into the seafloor more intensely during the Ordovician Period than in the Cambrian Period, reaching depths of up to 1 metre (3 feet) below the seafloor.

Causes

The causes of the Ordovician radiation remain unclear. One view points to the Middle Ordovician fall in sea level, although this event has also been coupled to a global drop in diversity. Another view posits that biological interactions or an inherently higher rate of speciation in some groups fostered the diversification. Others have noted the correlation between the Ordovician diversification and the increase in global orogenic (mountain-building) and volcanic activity. Indeed, on continents affected by orogenic activity, diversity proceeded at a faster pace than on other continents, suggesting that an increase in the supply of some nutrients, such as phosphorous and potassium, during the process of uplift may have fueled the diversification.

Mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician

The Ordovician Period was terminated by an interval of mass extinction. This extinction interval ranks second in severity to the one that occurred at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods in terms of the percentage of marine families affected, and it was almost twice as severe as the extinction event that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous Period, which is famous for bringing an end to the dinosaurs. An estimated 85 percent of all Ordovician species became extinct during the end-Ordovician extinction in the nearly two-million-year-long Hirnantian Age and the subsequent Rhuddanian Age of the Silurian Period.

Brachiopods display the effects of this extinction well. Laurentian brachiopods were hit hard, particularly those that lived in the broad and shallow seas both within and near the continent. Many of these brachiopods were endemic (confined to a particular region) to Laurentia, as opposed to the more cosmopolitan (globally distributed) forms that lived at the edges of the continent. Following the extinction, Laurentian seas were repopulated with brachiopod genera previously found only on other continents. As a result, Silurian brachiopods were far more widely distributed than their Ordovician predecessors. Other groups of organisms—including conodonts, acritarchs (a catchall group of various small microfossils), bryozoans, and trilobites—that showed this pattern of regional, but not global, distribution were similarly affected by this extinction event. Despite the intensity of the extinction and the loss of many endemic species, Silurian ecosystems were remarkably similar to those in the Ordovician.

The extinction appears to have occurred in several phases. An early phase affecting graptolites, brachiopods, and trilobites occurred prior to the end of the Ordovician Period, before the major fall in sea level. A second phase of extinction occurred as sea levels fell because of the onset of glaciation over the African and South American portions of Gondwana. In many areas the interval of glaciation was accompanied by the invasion of cool-water brachiopod fauna, even into tropical latitudes, suggesting the onset of significant global cooling. A third phase of extinction occurred with the rise of sea level that took place during the Rhuddanian Age of the Silurian Period.

The cause of the end-Ordovician extinction is generally attributed to two factors: the first wave of extinction may be related to rapid cooling at the end of the Ordovician Period, and the second phase is widely regarded as having been caused by the sea-level fall associated with the glaciation. The drop in sea level would have drained the large epicontinental seas and reduced the available habitat for organisms that favoured those settings. No concentration of iridium has been identified near the extinction that would suggest a bolide (meteoroid or asteroid) impact like the one identified at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods.