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Ordovician Period
Second period of the Paleozoic era on Old Earth, lasting from 488 to 444 million years ago. Preceded by the Cambrian and followed by the Silurian. The Ordovician saw the first corals, primitive fishes, seaweed and fungi. Graptolites, bryozoans, gastropods, bivalves, trilobites, conodonts, and echinoids were all common. Primitive crustose plants resembling liverworts appeared on land. There were high sea levels at first, but later there was global cooling and glaciation, and much volcanism. It ended in a glaciation and mass extinction.
The biota of the Ordovician have not attracted the kind of attention from lazurogenics enthusiasts that other later periods have, as the life forms are not spectacular enough to attract popular attention and authentic reproductions of such forms as conodonts and graptolites that lack clear modern models is a significant challenge. Nevertheless some specialists have attempted creation of a number of different Ordovician biomes.
Elsewhere in the galaxy the peculiar "Jacks" awoke from and returned to dormancy during this period, without any known impact on the development of Terragen life.
The biota of the Ordovician have not attracted the kind of attention from lazurogenics enthusiasts that other later periods have, as the life forms are not spectacular enough to attract popular attention and authentic reproductions of such forms as conodonts and graptolites that lack clear modern models is a significant challenge. Nevertheless some specialists have attempted creation of a number of different Ordovician biomes.
Elsewhere in the galaxy the peculiar "Jacks" awoke from and returned to dormancy during this period, without any known impact on the development of Terragen life.
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev; some additions by Stephen Inniss
Initially published on 17 December 2001.
Initially published on 17 December 2001.
