The researchers' idea that Earth once had rings comes from reconstructions of Earth's plate tectonics from the Ordovician period—which ran between 485.4 million years and 443.8 million years ago ...

The "Big Five" mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic Eon have long attracted significant attention from the geoscience community and the public. Among them, the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME ...

If you were to look up from Earth some 466 million years ago, you might have seen a gleaming ring stretching across the sky, some scientists say.

The Ordovician period and its impact spike correspond closely with a period of intense cold for our planet known as the Hirnantian glaciation—or, more dramatically, as the Hirnantian Icehouse.

The late Ordovician event is even more murky, but with a predicted ratio of 1-2 extinction-causing explosions over the ...

Fossil of the Ordovician animal Mieridduryn bonniae. Its spiny proboscis is visible in the close-up on the right. (Image credit: Pates et al./Nature Communications) ...

Long before the dawn of humans, dinosaurs, insects or even trees, a cascade of unfortunate events threatened to end life on earth. During the Ordovician Period, around 485 to 444 million years ago, ...

The series of extinctions that occurred during the Ordovician and Silurian periods between 445 and 415 million years ago wiped out as much as 85 percent of all animal species on Earth.

The Ordovician was a critical time in the history of life when extraordinary diversification of animals occurred and more familiar ecosystems like coral reefs began to appear at the end of the period.

The "Big Five" mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic Eon have long attracted significant attention from the geoscience community and the public. Among them, the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME ...