View source for Silurian

{{Short description|Third period of the Paleozoic Era}}
{{Distinguish|Silurian (Doctor Who){{!}}Silurian (''Doctor Who'')}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox geologic timespan
| name                         = Silurian
| color                        = Silurian
| top_bar                      =
| time_start                   = 443.1
| time_start_uncertainty       = 0.9
| time_end                     = 419.62
| time_end_uncertainty         = 1.36
| image_map                    = Mollweide Paleographic Map of Earth, 430 Ma (Homerian Age).png
| caption_map                  = A map of Earth as it appeared 430 million years ago during the Silurian Period, Wenlock Epoch
| image_outcrop                =
| caption_outcrop              =
| image_art                    =
| caption_art                  =
<!--Chronology-->
| timeline                     = Silurian
<!--Etymology-->
| name_formality               = Formal
| name_accept_date             =
| alternate_spellings          =
| synonym1                     = Gotlandian
| synonym1_coined              =
| synonym2                     =
| synonym2_coined              =
| synonym3                     =
| synonym3_coined              =
| nicknames                    =
| former_names                 =
| proposed_names               =
<!--Usage Information--> 
| celestial_body               = earth
| usage                        = Global ([[International Commission on Stratigraphy|ICS]])
| timescales_used              = ICS Time Scale
| formerly_used_by             =
| not_used_by                  =
<!--Definition-->
| chrono_unit                  = Period
| strat_unit                   = System
| proposed_by                  = [[Roderick Murchison]], 1835
| timespan_formality           = Formal
| lower_boundary_def           = [[First appearance datum|FAD]] of the [[Graptolite]] ''[[Akidograptus ascensus]]''
| lower_gssp_location          = [[Dob's Linn]], Moffat, United Kingdom
| lower_gssp_coords            = {{Coord|55.4400|N|3.2700|W|display=inline}}
| lower_gssp_accept_date       = 1984<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lucas |first1=Sepncer |title=The GSSP Method of Chronostratigraphy: A Critical Review |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |date=6 November 2018 |volume=6 |article-number=191 |doi=10.3389/feart.2018.00191 |bibcode=2018FrEaS...6..191L |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holland |first1=C. |title=Series and Stages of the Silurian System |journal=Episodes |date=June 1985 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=101–103 |doi=10.18814/epiiugs/1985/v8i2/005 |url=https://timescalefoundation.org/references/Silurian1.pdf |access-date=11 December 2020|doi-access=free }}</ref>
| upper_boundary_def           = FAD of the Graptolite ''[[Monograptus|Monograptus uniformis]]''
| upper_gssp_location          = [[Klonk]], Czech Republic
| upper_gssp_coords            = {{Coord|49.8550|N|13.7920|E|display=inline}}
| upper_gssp_accept_date       = 1972<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chlupáč |first1=Ivo |last2=Hladil |first2=Jindrich |title=The global stratotype section and point of the Silurian-Devonian boundary |journal=CFS Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg |date=January 2000 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260135817 |access-date=7 December 2020}}</ref>
<!--Atmospheric and Climatic Data-->
| sea_level                    = Around 180 m, with short-term negative excursions<ref>{{cite journal | author =Haq, B. U.| year =2008| doi =10.1126/science.1161648 | title =A Chronology of Paleozoic Sea-Level Changes | journal =Science | volume =322 | pages =64–68 | pmid =18832639 | last2 =Schutter | first2 =SR | issue =5898 |bibcode =2008Sci...322...64H | s2cid = 206514545}}</ref>
}}

The '''Silurian''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ɪ|ˈ|lj|ʊər|i|.|ən|,_|s|aɪ|-}} {{respell|sih|LURE|ee|ən|,_|sy|-}})<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=John |author-link=John C. Wells |title=[[Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English|Longman Pronunciation Dictionary]] |publisher=Pearson [[Longman]] |edition=3rd |date=3 April 2008 |isbn=978-1-4058-8118-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|Silurian}}</ref><ref>{{cite Collins Dictionary|Silurian}}</ref> is a [[period (geology)|geologic period and system]] spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the [[Ordovician]] Period, at {{period start|Silurian}} Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the [[Devonian]] Period, {{period end|Silurian}} Ma.<ref name="ICS2024-12">{{cite web | url=https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2024-12.pdf | title=International Chronostratigraphic Chart v.2024/12 | publisher=[[International Commission on Stratigraphy]] | date=December 2024 | access-date=2025-05-16 }}</ref> The Silurian is the third and shortest period of the [[Paleozoic]] Era, and the third of twelve periods of the [[Phanerozoic]] Eon. As with other [[geologic period]]s, the [[Rock (geology)|rock]] beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major [[Ordovician–Silurian extinction events]] when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.

One important event in this period was the initial establishment of terrestrial life in what is known as the [[Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution]]: [[vascular plants]] emerged from more primitive land plants,<ref name="SilurianDevonianTerrestrialRevolution" /><ref name="SilurianDevonianTerrestrialRevolutionChina" /> [[dikarya]]n fungi started expanding and diversifying along with [[glomeromycota]]n fungi,<ref name="LutzoniEtAl2018">{{cite journal |last1=Lutzoni |first1=François |last2=Nowak |first2=Michael D. |last3=Alfaro |first3=Michael E. |last4=Reeb |first4=Valérie |last5=Miadlikowska |first5=Jolanta |last6=Krug |first6=Michael |last7=Arnold |first7=A. Elizabeth |last8=Lewis |first8=Louise A. |last9=Swofford |first9=David L. |last10=Hibbett |first10=David |last11=Hilu |first11=Khidir |last12=James |first12=Timothy Y. |last13=Quandt |first13=Dietmar |last14=Magallón |first14=Susana |date=21 December 2018 |title=Contemporaneous radiations of fungi and plants linked to symbiosis |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=5451 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07849-9 |pmid=30575731 |pmc=6303338 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.5451L |s2cid=56645104 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and three groups of arthropods ([[myriapods]], [[arachnids]] and [[Hexapoda|hexapods]]) became fully terrestrialized.<ref name="Garwood">{{cite journal |last1=Garwood |first1=Russell J. |last2=Edgecombe |first2=Gregory D. |date=September 2011 |title=Early Terrestrial Animals, Evolution, and Uncertainty |journal=Evolution: Education and Outreach |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=489–501 |doi=10.1007/s12052-011-0357-y |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Another significant evolutionary milestone during the Silurian was the diversification of [[Gnathostomata|jawed fish]], which include [[placoderm]]s, [[acanthodian]]s (which gave rise to [[cartilaginous fish]]) and [[osteichthyan]] ([[bony fish]], further divided into [[lobe-finned fish|lobe-finned]] and [[ray-finned fish]]es),<ref name="Brazeau-Friedman-2015">{{cite journal |last1=Brazeau |first1=M. D. |last2=Friedman |first2=M. |date=2015 |title=The origin and early phylogenetic history of jawed vertebrates |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=520 |issue=7548 |pages=490–497 |bibcode=2015Natur.520..490B |doi=10.1038/nature14438 |pmc=4648279 |pmid=25903631}}</ref> although this corresponded to sharp decline of [[jawless fish]] such as [[conodont]]s and [[ostracoderm]]s.

== History of study ==
{{Life timeline}}
The Silurian system was first identified by the Scottish geologist [[Roderick Murchison]], who was examining fossil-bearing sedimentary rock [[Stratum|strata]] in south [[Wales]] in the early 1830s. He named the sequences for a [[Celts|Celtic]] tribe of Wales, the [[Silures]], inspired by his friend [[Adam Sedgwick]], who had named the period of his study the [[Cambrian]], from a [[Latin]] name for Wales.<ref>See:
*  {{cite journal |last1=Murchison |first1=Roderick Impey |title=On the Silurian system of rocks |journal=Philosophical Magazine |date=1835 |volume=7 |pages=46–52 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d01457537j&view=1up&seq=60 |series=3rd series |issue=37 |doi=10.1080/14786443508648654}}  From p. 48:  " … I venture to suggest, that as the great mass of rocks in question, trending from south-west to north-east, traverses the kingdom of our ancestors the Silures, the term "Silurian system" should be adopted … "
*  {{cite book |last1=Wilmarth |first1=Mary Grace |title=Bulletin 769: The Geologic Time Classification of the United States Geological Survey Compared With Other Classifications, accompanied by the original definitions of era, period and epoch terms |date=1925 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C., U.S. |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=my7x_PBkpm4C&pg=PA80}}</ref> Whilst the British rocks now identified as belonging to the Silurian System and the lands now thought to have been inhabited in antiquity by the Silures show little correlation ([[wiktionary:cf|{{abbr|cf|compare}}]]. [[:File:Geologic map Wales & SW England EN.svg|Geologic map of Wales]], [[:File:Wales.pre-Roman.jpg|Map of pre-Roman tribes of Wales]]), Murchison conjectured that their territory included [[Caer Caradoc]] and [[Wenlock Edge]] exposures - and that if it did not there were plenty of Silurian rocks elsewhere 'to sanction the name proposed'.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murchison |first=Roderick |date=1835 |title=On the Silurian System of Rocks |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20069#page/62/mode/thumb |journal=The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science |volume=Third Series, Vol. 7 |pages=46–52 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> In 1835 the two men presented a joint paper, under the title ''On the Silurian and Cambrian Systems, Exhibiting the Order in which the Older Sedimentary Strata Succeed each other in England and Wales,'' which was the germ of the modern [[Geologic time scale|geological time scale]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sedgwick |last2=Murchison |first2=R.I. |title=On the Silurian and Cambrian systems, exhibiting the order in which the older sedimentary strata succeed each other in England and Wales |journal=Report of the Fifth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. § Notices and Abstracts of Miscellaneous Communications to the Sections. |date=1835 |volume=5 |pages=59–61 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/252891#page/397/mode/1up}}</ref> As it was first identified, the "Silurian" series when traced farther afield quickly came to overlap Sedgwick's "Cambrian" sequence, however, provoking furious disagreements that ended the friendship.

The English geologist [[Charles Lapworth]] resolved the conflict by defining a new [[Ordovician]] system including the contested beds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lapworth |first1=Charles |title=On the tripartite classification of the Lower Palaeozoic rocks |journal=Geological Magazine |date=1879 |volume=6 |pages=1–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJpZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 |series=2nd series |issue=1 |doi=10.1017/s0016756800156560|bibcode=1879GeoM....6....1L |s2cid=129165105 |url-access=subscription }} From pp. 13–14: "North Wales itself – at all events the whole of the great Bala district where Sedgwick first worked out the physical succession among the rocks of the intermediate or so-called ''Upper Cambrian'' or ''Lower Silurian'' system; and in all probability much of the Shelve and the Caradoc area, whence Murchison first published its distinctive fossils – lay within the territory of the Ordovices; … Here, then, have we the hint for the appropriate title for the central system of the Lower Palaeozoics. It should be called the Ordovician System, after this old British tribe."</ref> An alternative name for the Silurian was ''"Gotlandian"'' after the [[Geology of Gotland|strata of the Baltic island of Gotland]].<ref>The Gotlandian system was proposed in 1893 by the French geologist [[Albert Auguste Cochon de Lapparent]] (1839–1908): {{cite book|last1=Lapparent|first1=A. de|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00130906i&view=1up&seq=180|title=Traité de Géologie|date=1893|publisher=F. Savy|edition=3rd|volume=2|location=Paris, France|page=748|language=fr}} From p. 748: ''"D'accord avec ces divisions, on distingue communément dans le silurien trois étages: l'étage inférieur ou ''cambrien'' (1); l'étage moyen ou ''ordovicien'' (2); l'étage supérieur ou ''gothlandien'' (3)."'' (In agreement with these divisions, one generally distinguishes, within the Silurian, three stages: the lower stage or ''Cambrian'' [1]; the middle stage or ''Ordovician'' [2]; the upper stage or ''Gotlandian'' [3].)</ref>

The French geologist [[Joachim Barrande]], building on Murchison's work, used the term ''Silurian'' in a more comprehensive sense than was justified by subsequent knowledge. He divided the Silurian rocks of [[Bohemia]] into eight stages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barrande |first1=Joachim |title=Systême silurien du centre de la Bohême |date=1852 |publisher=(Self-published) |location=Paris, France and Prague, (Czech Republic) |pages=ix–x |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31210012884258&view=1up&seq=19 |language=fr}}</ref> His interpretation was questioned in 1854 by [[Edward Forbes]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Forbes |first1=Edward |title=Anniversary Address of the President |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London |date=1854 |volume=10 |pages=xxii–lxxxi |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044102915394&view=1up&seq=50}} See p. xxxiv.</ref> and the later stages of Barrande; F, G and H have since been shown to be Devonian. Despite these modifications in the original groupings of the strata, it is recognized that Barrande established Bohemia as a classic ground for the study of the earliest Silurian fossils.

==Subdivisions==

{|class="wikitable"
|+Subdivisions of the Silurian period
|-
!Epoch!![[Age (geology)|Age]]||Start<br />(Ma)!!Etymology of<br />Epochs and Stages!!Notes
|-
|rowspan=3|[[Llandovery Epoch|Llandovery]]||[[Rhuddanian]]||443.8||Cefn-Rhuddan Farm, [[Llandovery]] in [[Carmarthenshire]], Wales||
|-
|[[Aeronian]]||440.8|| Cwm Coed-Aeron Farm, Wales ||[[Trefawr Track]] near the farm is the site of the GSSP
|-
|[[Telychian]]||438.5||Pen-lan-Telych Farm, Llandovery, Wales ||
|-
|rowspan=2|[[Wenlock (Silurian)|Wenlock]]||[[Sheinwoodian]]||433.4||Sheinwood village, [[Much Wenlock]] and [[Wenlock Edge]], [[Shropshire]], England||rowspan=2|During the Wenlock, the oldest-known [[Vascular plant|tracheophytes]] of the genus ''[[Cooksonia]]'', appear. The complexity of slightly later [[Gondwana]] plants like ''[[Baragwanathia]]'', which resembled a modern clubmoss, indicates a much longer history for vascular plants, extending into the early Silurian or even [[Ordovician]].{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} The first terrestrial animals also appear in the Wenlock, represented by air-breathing [[millipedes]] from [[Scotland]].<ref name=Selden&Read>{{cite journal |url=http://www.paulselden.net/uploads/7/5/3/2/7532217/seldenread2008.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group |volume=23 |year=2008 |title=The oldest land animals: Silurian millipedes from Scotland |author=Paul Selden & Helen Read |pages=36–37}}</ref>
|-
|[[Homerian]]||430.5||[[Homer, Shropshire]], England
|-
|rowspan=2|[[Ludlow Group|Ludlow]]|||[[Gorstian]]||427.4||Gorsty village near [[Ludlow]], Shropshire, England||
|-
|[[Ludfordian]]||425.6||[[Ludford, Shropshire]], England||
|-
|[[Přídolí Epoch|Přídolí]]||—||423.0||Named after a locality at the ''Homolka a Přídolí'' nature reserve near the [[Prague]] suburb of [[Slivenec]], [[Czech Republic]].||''Přídolí'' is the old name of a [[Cadastre|cadastral]] field area.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/contents/art1174 |first1=Štěpán |last1=Manda |first2=Jiří |last2=Frýda |title=Silurian-Devonian boundary events and their influence on cephalopod evolution: evolutionary significance of cephalopod egg size during mass extinctions |journal=Bulletin of Geosciences |volume=85 |year=2010 |issue=3 |pages=513–40 |doi=10.3140/bull.geosci.1174|doi-access=free }}</ref>
|}

==Paleogeography==
[[Image:Ordovicium-Silurian.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ordovician]]-Silurian boundary on [[Hovedøya]], [[Norway]], showing brownish late Ordovician [[mudstone]] and later dark deep-water Silurian [[shale]]. The layers have been overturned by the [[Caledonian orogeny]].]]
With the supercontinent [[Gondwana]] covering the equator and much of the southern hemisphere, a large ocean occupied most of the northern half of the globe.<ref name=Munnecke2010/> The high sea levels of the Silurian and the relatively flat land (with few significant mountain belts) resulted in a number of island chains, and thus a rich diversity of environmental settings.<ref name=Munnecke2010/>

During the Silurian, Gondwana continued a slow southward drift to high southern latitudes, but there is evidence that the Silurian icecaps were less extensive than those of the late-Ordovician glaciation. The southern continents remained united during this period. The melting of icecaps and [[glacier]]s contributed to a rise in sea level, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an [[unconformity]]. The continents of [[Avalonia]], [[Baltica]], and [[Laurentia]] [[Continental drift|drifted]] together near the [[equator]], starting the formation of a second [[supercontinent]] known as [[Euramerica]].

When the proto-Europe collided with North America, the collision folded coastal sediments that had been accumulating since the Cambrian off the east coast of North America and the west coast of Europe. This event is the [[Caledonian orogeny]], a spate of mountain building that stretched from [[New York (state)|New York State]] through conjoined Europe and Greenland to Norway. At the end of the Silurian, sea levels dropped again, leaving telltale basins of [[evaporite]]s extending from Michigan to West Virginia, and the new mountain ranges were rapidly eroded. The [[Teays River]], flowing into the shallow mid-continental sea, eroded Ordovician Period strata, forming deposits of Silurian strata in northern Ohio and Indiana.

The vast ocean of [[Panthalassa]] covered most of the northern hemisphere. Other minor oceans include two phases of the Tethys, the [[Proto-Tethys Ocean|Proto-Tethys]] and [[Paleo-Tethys Ocean|Paleo-Tethys]], the [[Rheic Ocean]], the [[Iapetus Ocean]] (a narrow seaway between Avalonia and Laurentia), and the newly formed [[Ural Ocean]].
[[File:Late silurian sea bed arp.jpg|thumb|Fossils of the late Silurian sea bed, England]]

==Climate and sea level==
The Silurian period was once believed to have enjoyed relatively stable and warm temperatures, in contrast with the extreme glaciations of the Ordovician before it and the extreme heat of the ensuing Devonian; however, it is now known that the global climate underwent many drastic fluctuations throughout the Silurian,<ref name="Yan2022EarlySilurianClimateChange">{{cite journal |last1=Yan |first1=Guanzhou |last2=Lehnert |first2=Oliver |last3=Männik |first3=Peep |last4=Calner |first4=Mikael |last5=Luan |first5=Xiaocong |last6=Gong |first6=Fanyi |last7=Li |first7=Lixia |last8=Wei |first8=Xin |last9=Wang |first9=Guangxu |last10=Zhan |first10=Renbin |last11=Wu |first11=Rongchang |date=15 November 2022 |title=The record of early Silurian climate changes from South China and Baltica based on integrated conodont biostratigraphy and isotope chemostratigraphy |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018222004151 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=606 |article-number=111245 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.111245 |bibcode=2022PPP...60611245Y |s2cid=252504361 |access-date=8 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="GambacortaMenichettiTrinciantiTorricelli" /> evidenced by numerous major carbon and oxygen isotope excursions during this geologic period.<ref name="YoungEtAl2020PPP">{{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Set A. |last2=Benayoun |first2=Emily |last3=Kozik |first3=Nevin P. |last4=Hints |first4=Olle |last5=Martma |first5=Tõnu |last6=Bergström |first6=Stig M. |last7=Owens |first7=Jeremy D. |date=15 September 2020 |title=Marine redox variability from Baltica during extinction events in the latest Ordovician–early Silurian |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=554 |article-number=109792 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109792 |bibcode=2020PPP...55409792Y |s2cid=218930512 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sproson |first1=Adam D. |date=15 February 2020 |title=Pacing of the latest Ordovician and Silurian carbon cycle by a ~4.5 Myr orbital cycle |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018219308867 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=540 |article-number=109543 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109543 |bibcode=2020PPP...54009543S |s2cid=213445668 |access-date=8 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="TrotterEtAl2016PPP" /> Sea levels rose from their [[Hirnantian]] low throughout the first half of the Silurian; they subsequently fell throughout the rest of the period, although smaller scale patterns are superimposed on this general trend; fifteen high-stands (periods when sea levels were above the edge of the continental shelf) can be identified, and the highest Silurian sea level was probably around {{convert|140|m|0}} higher than the lowest level reached.<ref name=Munnecke2010/>

During this period, the [[Earth]] entered a warm [[greenhouse]] phase, supported by high CO<sub>2</sub> levels of 4500 ppm, and warm shallow seas covered much of the equatorial land masses.<ref name="Chaloner2003">{{cite journal |last1=Chaloner |first1=William G. |title=The role of carbon dioxide in plant evolution |journal=Evolution on Planet Earth |date=2003 |pages=65–83 |doi=10.1016/B978-012598655-7/50032-X|isbn=978-0-12-598655-7 }}</ref> Early in the Silurian, [[glacier]]s retreated back into the [[South Pole]] until they almost disappeared in the middle of Silurian.<ref name="GambacortaMenichettiTrinciantiTorricelli">{{cite journal |last1=Gambacorta |first1=G. |last2=Menichetti |first2=E. |last3=Trincianti |first3=E. |last4=Torricelli |first4=S. |title=The Silurian climatic transition recorded in the epicontinental Baltica Sea |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |date=March 2019 |volume=517 |pages=16–29 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.12.016|bibcode=2019PPP...517...16G |s2cid=135118794 }}</ref> Layers of broken shells (called [[coquina]]) provide strong evidence of a climate dominated by violent storms generated then as now by warm sea surfaces.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nealon |first1=T. |last2=Williams |first2=D. Michael |title=Storm-influenced shelf deposits from the silurian of Western Ireland: A reinterpretation of deep basin sediments |journal=Geological Journal |date=30 April 2007 |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=311–320 |doi=10.1002/gj.3350230403}}</ref>

=== Perturbations ===
The climate and [[carbon cycle]] appear to be rather unsettled during the Silurian, which had a higher frequency of isotopic excursions (indicative of climate fluctuations) than any other period.<ref name=Munnecke2010/> The [[Ireviken event]], [[Mulde event]], and [[Lau event]] each represent isotopic excursions following a minor mass extinction<ref>{{Cite journal| last1 = Samtleben | first1 = C.| last2 = Munnecke | first2 = A.| last3 = Bickert | first3 = T.| title = Development of facies and C/O-isotopes in transects through the Ludlow of Gotland: Evidence for global and local influences on a shallow-marine environment| journal = Facies| volume = 43| pages = 1–38| year = 2000| issue = 1| doi = 10.1007/BF02536983| bibcode = 2000Faci...43....1S| s2cid = 130640332}}</ref> and associated with rapid sea-level change. Each one leaves a similar signature in the geological record, both geochemically and biologically; pelagic (free-swimming) organisms were particularly hard hit, as were [[brachiopods]], [[corals]], and [[trilobites]], and extinctions rarely occur in a rapid series of fast bursts.<ref name=Munnecke2010/><ref name="TrotterEtAl2016PPP">{{cite journal |last1=Trotter |first1=Julie A. |last2=Williams |first2=Ian S. |last3=Barnes |first3=Christopher R. |last4=Männik |first4=Peep |last5=Simpson |first5=Andrew |title=New conodont δ18O records of Silurian climate change: Implications for environmental and biological events |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |date=February 2016 |volume=443 |pages=34–48 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.11.011|bibcode=2016PPP...443...34T }}</ref> The climate fluctuations are best explained by a sequence of glaciations, but the lack of [[tillite]]s in the middle to late Silurian make this explanation problematic.<ref name="Calner2008">{{cite book |last1=Calner |first1=Mikael |title=Mass Extinction |chapter=Silurian global events – at the tipping point of climate change |date=2008 |pages=21–57 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-75916-4_4|isbn=978-3-540-75915-7 }}</ref>

==Flora and fauna==
{{main|Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution}}
The Silurian period has been viewed by some palaeontologists as an extended recovery interval following the [[Late Ordovician mass extinction]] (LOME), which interrupted the cascading increase in biodiversity that had continuously gone on throughout the Cambrian and most of the Ordovician.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rasmussen |first1=Christian M. Ø. |last2=Kröger |first2=Björn |last3=Nielsen |first3=Morten L. |last4=Colmenar |first4=Jorge |date=9 April 2019 |title=Cascading trend of Early Paleozoic marine radiations paused by Late Ordovician extinctions |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=116 |issue=15 |pages=7207–7213 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1821123116 |pmid=30910963 |pmc=6462056 |bibcode=2019PNAS..116.7207R |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The Silurian was the first period to see megafossils of extensive terrestrial biota in the form of [[moss]]-like miniature forests along lakes and streams and networks of large, mycorrhizal [[nematophytes]], heralding the beginning of the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution.<ref name="SilurianDevonianTerrestrialRevolution">{{cite journal |last1=Capel |first1=Elliot |last2=Cleal |first2=Christopher J. |last3=Xue |first3=Jinzhuang |last4=Monnet |first4=Claude |last5=Servais |first5=Thomas |last6=Cascales-Miñana |first6=Borja |date=August 2022 |title=The Silurian–Devonian terrestrial revolution: Diversity patterns and sampling bias of the vascular plant macrofossil record |journal=[[Earth-Science Reviews]] |volume=231 |article-number=104085 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104085 |bibcode=2022ESRv..23104085C |s2cid=249616013 |doi-access=free |hdl=20.500.12210/76731 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="SilurianDevonianTerrestrialRevolutionChina">{{cite journal |last1=Xue |first1=Jinzhuang |last2=Huang |first2=Pu |last3=Wang |first3=Deming |last4=Xiong |first4=Conghui |last5=Liu |first5=Le |last6=Basinger |first6=James F. |date=May 2018 |title=Silurian-Devonian terrestrial revolution in South China: Taxonomy, diversity, and character evolution of vascular plants in a paleogeographically isolated, low-latitude region |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825217306591 |journal=[[Earth-Science Reviews]] |volume=180 |pages=92–125 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.03.004 |bibcode=2018ESRv..180...92X |access-date=8 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Retallack |first1=Gregory J. |date=June 2022 |title=Ordovician-Devonian lichen canopies before evolution of woody trees |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1342937X22000247 |journal=[[Gondwana Research]] |volume=106 |pages=211–223 |doi=10.1016/j.gr.2022.01.010 |bibcode=2022GondR.106..211R |s2cid=246320087 |access-date=23 November 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, the land fauna did not have a major impact on the Earth until it diversified in the Devonian.<ref name=Munnecke2010>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.08.001 |title=Ordovician and Silurian sea–water chemistry, sea level, and climate: A synopsis |year=2010 |last1=Munnecke |first1=Axel |last2=Calner |first2=Mikael |last3=Harper |first3=David A.T. |author-link3 = David Harper (palaeontologist)|last4=Servais |first4=Thomas |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=296 |issue=3–4 |pages=389–413 |bibcode=2010PPP...296..389M|url=https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1487372 }}</ref>

[[File:Diorama of a Silurian seafloor - cephalopod, trilobites, fish, crinoids, gastropods, corals, algae, starfish, brachiopods, bryozoans (44982225194).jpg|thumb|Diorama of a Silurian seafloor]]
The first fossil records of [[vascular plant]]s, that is, land plants with tissues that carry water and food, appeared in the second half of the Silurian Period.<ref name="DonRittnerEncyclopaedia">{{cite book|last=Rittner|first=Don|title=Encyclopedia of Biology|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|page=338|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=le1MJfA63KUC&pg=PA338 |isbn=978-1-4381-0999-2}}</ref> The earliest-known representatives of this group are ''[[Cooksonia]]''. Most of the sediments containing ''Cooksonia'' are marine in nature. Preferred habitats were likely along rivers and streams. ''[[Baragwanathia]]'' appears to be almost as old, dating to the early Ludlow (420 Ma){{Update inline|date=July 2024|?=yes|reason=after revisions of the ICS geologic time scale, early Ludlow is defined now as more like c. 427 to c. 426 million years ago; 420 million years ago would now be regarded as late Pridoli}} and has branching stems and needle-like leaves of {{convert|10|–|20|cm}}. The plant shows a high degree of development in relation to the age of its fossil remains. Fossils of this plant have been recorded in Australia,<ref name="RickardsBaragwanathia2000">{{cite journal |last1=Rickards |first1=R. B. |date=1 March 2000 |title=The age of the earliest club mosses: the Silurian Baragwanathia flora in Victoria, Australia |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/age-of-the-earliest-club-mosses-the-silurian-baragwanathia-flora-in-victoria-australia/6A0606377BDB7E3E564153CEE415D815 |journal=[[Geological Magazine]] |volume=137 |issue=2 |pages=207–209 |doi=10.1017/S0016756800003800 |bibcode=2000GeoM..137..207R |s2cid=131287538 |access-date=8 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=Lang>{{cite journal |last1=Lang |first1=W.H. |last2=Cookson |first2=I.C. |date=1935 |title=On a flora, including vascular land plants, associated with ''Monograptus'', in rocks of Silurian age, from Victoria, Australia |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B |volume=224 |issue=517 |pages=421–449 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1935.0004 |bibcode=1935RSPTB.224..421L |doi-access=free }}</ref> Canada,<ref name=Hueber1983>{{cite journal | last=Hueber |first=F.M. |date=1983 |title=A new species of ''Baragwanathia'' from the Sextant Formation (Emsian) Northern Ontario, Canada |journal=Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=86 |issue=1–2 |pages=57–79 | doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.1983.tb00717.x }}</ref> and China.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bora|first=Lily|title=Principles of Paleobotany|year=2010|publisher=Mittal Publications|pages=36–37}}</ref> ''[[Eohostimella]] heathana'' is an early, probably terrestrial, "plant" known from compression fossils<ref name='Niklas1976'>{{cite journal | doi = 10.2307/2805564 | title = Chemical Examinations of Some Non-Vascular Paleozoic Plants | year = 1976 | author = Niklas, Karl J. | journal = [[Brittonia]] | volume = 28 | pages = 113–137 | issue = 1 | jstor = 2805564 | bibcode = 1976Britt..28..113N | s2cid = 21794174 }}</ref> of Early Silurian (Llandovery) age.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Edwards |first1=D. |last2=Wellman |first2=C. |year=2001 |editor-last=Gensel |editor-first=P. |editor2-last=Edwards |editor2-first=D. |contribution=Embryophytes on Land: The Ordovician to Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) Record |title=Plants Invade the Land: Evolutionary and Environmental Perspectives |pages=3–28 |publisher=New York: Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-11161-4 |name-list-style=amp }}, p. 4</ref> The chemistry of its fossils is similar to that of fossilised vascular plants, rather than algae.<ref name=Niklas1976/>

Fossils that are considered as terrestrial animals are also known from the Silurian. The definitive oldest record of [[millipede]] ever known is ''[[Kampecaris|Kampecaris obanensis]]'' and ''[[Archidesmus]]'' sp. from the late Silurian (425 Ma) of [[Kerrera]].<ref name="Brookfield-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Brookfield |first1=M. E. |last2=Catlos |first2=E. J. |last3=Suarez |first3=S. E. |date=2021-10-03 |title=Myriapod divergence times differ between molecular clock and fossil evidence: U/Pb zircon ages of the earliest fossil millipede-bearing sediments and their significance |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2020.1762593 |journal=Historical Biology |language=en |volume=33 |issue=10 |pages=2014–2018 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2020.1762593 |bibcode=2021HBio...33.2014B |s2cid=238220137 |issn=0891-2963|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There are also other millipedes, [[centipede]]s, and [[Trigonotarbida|trigonotarbid arachnoid]]s known from [[Ludlow Epoch|Ludlow]] (420 Ma).<ref name="Brookfield-2021" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dunlop |first=Jason A. |date=1996 |title=A trigonotarbid arachnid from the Upper Silurian of Shropshire |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/174271 |journal=Palaeontology |volume=39 |pages=605–614 |issn=0031-0239}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shear |first1=William A. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/195844 |title=Centiped legs (Arthropoda, Chilopoda, Scutigeromorpha) from the Silurian and Devonian of Britain and the Devonian of North America |last2=Jeram |first2=Andrew J. |last3=Selden |first3=Paul |date=1998 |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |location=New York, NY}}</ref> Predatory [[invertebrate]]s would indicate that simple [[food web]]s were in place that included non-predatory prey animals. Extrapolating back from [[Early Devonian]] biota, Andrew Jeram ''et al.'' in 1990<ref>{{cite journal |bibcode=1990Sci...250..658J |title=Land Animals in the Silurian: Arachnids and Myriapods from Shropshire, England |last1=Jeram |first1=Andrew J. |last2=Selden |first2=Paul A. |last3=Edwards |first3=Dianne |volume=250 |year=1990 |pages=658–61 |journal=Science |doi=10.1126/science.250.4981.658 |pmid=17810866 |issue=4981}}</ref> suggested a food web based on as-yet-undiscovered [[detritivore]]s and grazers on micro-organisms.<ref name="DiMicheleBookSilurian">{{cite book |first1=William A |last1=DiMichele |first2=Robert W |last2=Hook |year=1992 |chapter=The Silurian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0piKj_X4Ua8C&pg=PA207 |pages=207–10 |editor1-first=Anna K. |editor1-last=Behrensmeyer |title=Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time: Evolutionary Paleoecology of Terrestrial Plants and Animals |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-04155-1}}</ref> Millipedes from [[Cowie Formation]] such as ''[[Cowiedesmus]]'' and ''[[Pneumodesmus]]'' were considered as the oldest millipede from the middle Silurian at 428–430 Ma,<ref name="Selden&Read" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Heather M. |last2=Anderson |first2=Lyall I. |date=2004 |title=Morphology and taxonomy of Paleozoic millipedes (Diplopoda: Chilognatha: Archipolypoda) from Scotland |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/abs/morphology-and-taxonomy-of-paleozoic-millipedes-diplopoda-chilognatha-archipolypoda-from-scotland/1F7B935D32BB541D12F453F583399DE0 |journal=Journal of Paleontology |language=en |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=169–184 |doi=10.1666/0022-3360(2004)078<0169:MATOPM>2.0.CO;2 |bibcode=2004JPal...78..169W |s2cid=131201588 |issn=0022-3360|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wellman |first1=C.H. |last2=Lopes |first2=G. |last3=McKellar |first3=Z. |last4=Hartley |first4=A. |year=2023 |title=Age of the basal 'Lower Old Red Sandstone' Stonehaven Group of Scotland: The oldest reported air-breathing land animal is Silurian (late Wenlock) in age |journal=Journal of the Geological Society |publisher=The Geological Society of London |volume=181 |article-number=jgs2023-138 |doi=10.1144/jgs2023-138 |issn=0016-7649 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=2164/22754}}</ref> although the age of this formation is later reinterpreted to be from the early [[Devonian]] instead by some researchers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Suarez |first1=Stephanie E. |last2=Brookfield |first2=Michael E. |last3=Catlos |first3=Elizabeth J. |last4=Stöckli |first4=Daniel F. |date=2017-06-28 |title=A U-Pb zircon age constraint on the oldest-recorded air-breathing land animal |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=12 |issue=6 |article-number=e0179262 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0179262 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5489152 |pmid=28658320 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1279262S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brookfield |first1=M. E. |last2=Catlos |first2=E. J. |last3=Garza |first3=H. |date=2024-07-07 |title=The oldest 'millipede'-plant association? Age, paleoenvironments and sources of the Silurian lake sediments at Kerrera, Argyll and Bute, Scotland |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2024.2367554 |journal=Historical Biology |volume=37 |issue=5 |language=en |pages=1158–1170 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2024.2367554 |issn=0891-2963|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Regardless, ''Pneumodesmus'' is still an important fossil as the oldest definitive evidence of [[Spiracle (arthropods)|spiracles]] to breathe in the air.<ref name="Brookfield-2021" />

[[File:Life restoration of Sparalepis tingi.tiff|thumb|Life restoration of [[sarcopterygian]] ''[[Sparalepis|Sparalepis tingi]]'' and other fauna from the Silurian of [[Yunnan]]]]
The first bony fish, the [[Osteichthyes]], appeared, represented by the [[Acanthodii|Acanthodians]] covered with bony scales. Fish reached considerable diversity and developed movable [[jaw]]s, adapted from the supports of the front two or three [[gill]] arches. A diverse fauna of [[eurypterid]]s (sea scorpions)—some of them a few meters in length—prowled the shallow Silurian seas and lakes of North America; many of their [[fossil]]s have been found in [[New York (state)|New York state]]. Brachiopods were abundant and diverse, with the taxonomic composition, ecology, and biodiversity of Silurian brachiopods mirroring Ordovician ones.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rong |first1=Jia-yu |last2=Shen |first2=Shu-zhong |date=1 December 2002 |title=Comparative analysis of the end-Permian and end-Ordovician brachiopod mass extinctions and survivals in South China |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018202005072 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=188 |issue=1–2 |pages=25–38 |doi=10.1016/S0031-0182(02)00507-2 |bibcode=2002PPP...188...25R |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Brachiopods that survived the LOME developed novel adaptations for environmental stress,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rong |first1=Jiayu |last2=Zhan |first2=Renbin |date=October 1999 |title=Chief sources of brachiopod recovery from the end Ordovician mass extinction with special references to progenitors |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02875250 |journal=Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=553–560 |doi=10.1007/BF02875250 |bibcode=1999ScChD..42..553R |s2cid=129323463 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and they tended to be endemic to a single palaeoplate in the mass extinction's aftermath, but expanded their range afterwards.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Bing |last2=Rong |first2=Jiayu |last3=Cocks |first3=L. Robin M. |date=1 February 2012 |title=Global palaeobiogeographical patterns in brachiopods from survival to recovery after the end-Ordovician mass extinction |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018212000235 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=317-318 |pages=196–205 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.01.009 |bibcode=2012PPP...317..196H |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The most abundant brachiopods were atrypids and pentamerides;<ref name="HuangJinRong2018" /> atrypids were the first to recover and rediversify in the Rhuddanian after LOME,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jia-Yu |first1=Rong |last2=Harper |first2=David A. T. |date=31 January 2000 |title=Brachiopod survival and recovery from the latest Ordovician mass extinctions in South China |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1034(199911/12)34:4%3C321::AID-GJ809%3E3.0.CO;2-I |journal=[[Geological Journal]] |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=321–348 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1099-1034(199911/12)34:4<321::AID-GJ809>3.0.CO;2-I |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> while pentameride recovery was delayed until the Aeronian.<ref name="HuangJinRong2018">{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Bing |last2=Jin |first2=Jisuo |last3=Rong |first3=Jia-Yu |date=15 March 2018 |title=Post-extinction diversification patterns of brachiopods in the early–middle Llandovery, Silurian |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018217309987 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=493 |pages=11–19 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.12.025 |bibcode=2018PPP...493...11H |access-date=23 November 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Bryozoa]]ns exhibited significant degrees of endemism to a particular shelf.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Anstey |first1=Robert L. |last2=Pachut |first2=Joseph F. |last3=Tuckey |first3=Michael E. |date=8 April 2016 |title=Patterns of bryozoan endemism through the Ordovician-Silurian transition |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/abs/patterns-of-bryozoan-endemism-through-the-ordoviciansilurian-transition/A82657269DF086AEA88DA73906DA8DBF |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=305–328 |doi=10.1666/0094-8373(2003)0292.0.CO;2 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |access-date=16 April 2023}}</ref> They also developed symbiotic relationships with cnidarians<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zapalski |first1=Mikołaj K. |last2=Vinn |first2=Olev |last3=Toom |first3=Ursula |last4=Ernst |first4=Andrej |last5=Wilson |first5=Mark A. |date=16 September 2022 |title=Bryozoan–cnidarian mutualism triggered a new strategy for greater resource exploitation as early as the Late Silurian |journal=[[Scientific Reports]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=15556 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-19955-2 |pmid=36114227 |pmc=9481587 |bibcode=2022NatSR..1215556Z }}</ref> and stromatolites.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Claussen |first1=Anna Lene |last2=Munnecke |first2=Axel |last3=Ernst |first3=Andrej |date=2 March 2021 |title=Bryozoan-rich stromatolites (bryostromatolites) from the Silurian of Gotland and their relation to climate-related perturbations of the global carbon cycle |journal=Sedimentology |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=162–198 |doi=10.1111/sed.12863 |s2cid=233820331 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Many [[Bivalvia|bivalve]] fossils have also been found in Silurian deposits,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liljedahl |first1=Louis |date=January 1985 |title=Ecological aspects of a silicified bivalve fauna from the Silurian of Gotland |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1502-3931.1985.tb00684.x |journal=[[Lethaia]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=53–66 |doi=10.1111/j.1502-3931.1985.tb00684.x |bibcode=1985Letha..18...53L |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the first deep-boring bivalves are known from this period.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Claussen |first1=Anna Lene |last2=Munnecke |first2=Axel |last3=Wilson |first3=Mark A. |last4=Oswald |first4=Irina |date=22 April 2019 |title=The oldest deep-boring bivalves? Evidence from the Silurian of Gotland (Sweden) |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10347-019-0570-7 |journal=Facies |volume=65 |issue=3 |page=26 |doi=10.1007/s10347-019-0570-7 |bibcode=2019Faci...65...26C |s2cid=149500698 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Chiton]]s saw a peak in diversity during the middle of the Silurian.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cherns |first1=Lesley |date=2 January 2007 |title=Early Palaeozoic diversification of chitons (Polyplacophora, Mollusca) based on new data from the Silurian of Gotland, Sweden |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00241160410002180 |journal=[[Lethaia]] |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=445–456 |doi=10.1080/00241160410002180 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[hederellid|Hederelloids]] enjoyed significant success in the Silurian, with some developing symbioses with the colonial rugose coral ''Entelophyllum''.<ref name="HederelloidRugosanSymbiosis">{{cite journal |last1=Vinn |first1=Olev |last2=Wilson |first2=Mark A. |last3=Madison |first3=Anna |last4=Kazantseva |first4=Elizaveta |last5=Toom |first5=Ursula |title=First Symbiotic Association Between Hederelloids and Rugose Corals (Latest Silurian of Saaremaa, Estonia) |date=26 July 2022 |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/palaios/article-abstract/37/7/368/615777/FIRST-SYMBIOTIC-ASSOCIATION-BETWEEN-HEDERELLOIDS?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=[[PALAIOS]] |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=368–373 |doi=10.2110/palo.2022.005 |bibcode=2022Palai..37..368V |s2cid=251122025 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Silurian was a heyday for [[Tentaculita|tentaculitoids]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vinn |first1=Olev |date=1 June 2010 |title=Adaptive strategies in the evolution of encrusting tentaculitoid tubeworms |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018210001859 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=292 |issue=1–2 |pages=211–221 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.046 |bibcode=2010PPP...292..211V |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> which experienced an evolutionary radiation focused mainly in Baltoscandia,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wittmer |first1=Jacalyn M. |last2=Miller |first2=Arnold I. |date=1 December 2011 |title=Dissecting the global diversity trajectory of an enigmatic group: The paleogeographic history of tentaculitoids |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018211004822 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=312 |issue=1–2 |pages=54–65 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.09.009 |bibcode=2011PPP...312...54W |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> along with an expansion of their geographic range in the Llandovery and Wenlock.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wei |first1=Fan |last2=Gong |first2=Yiming |last3=Yang |first3=Hao |date=1 November 2012 |title=Biogeography, ecology and extinction of Silurian and Devonian tentaculitoids |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018212004208 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=358-360 |pages=40–50 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.07.019 |bibcode=2012PPP...358...40W |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Trilobites]] started to recover in the Rhuddanian,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wei |first1=Xin |last2=Zhan |first2=Ren-Bin |date=March 2018 |title=A late Rhuddanian (early Llandovery, Silurian) trilobite association from South China and its implications |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871174X17300380 |journal=[[Palaeoworld]] |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=42–52 |doi=10.1016/j.palwor.2017.05.008 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and they continued to enjoy success in the Silurian as they had in the Ordovician despite their reduction in clade diversity as a result of LOME.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adrain |first1=Jonathan M. |last2=Westrop |first2=Stephen R. |last3=Chatterton |first3=Brian D. E. |last4=Ramsköld |first4=Lars |date=8 February 2016 |title=Silurian trilobite alpha diversity and the end-Ordovician mass extinction |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/abs/silurian-trilobite-alpha-diversity-and-the-endordovician-mass-extinction/195A177887DB2400B86D4AD06738D3BD |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=625–646 |doi=10.1666/0094-8373(2000)0262.0.CO;2 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |access-date=16 April 2023}}</ref> The Early Silurian was a chaotic time of turnover for [[crinoid]]s as they rediversified after LOME.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Shanan E. |last2=Ausich |first2=William I. |date=8 April 2016 |title=A sampling-adjusted macroevolutionary history for Ordovician-Early Silurian crinoids |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/abs/samplingadjusted-macroevolutionary-history-for-ordovicianearly-silurian-crinoids/7C7F6AA98B5ACEEF6758F21D2B2039B7 |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=104–116 |doi=10.1666/07035.1 |s2cid=67838459 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Members of Flexibilia, which were minimally impacted by LOME, took on an increasing ecological prominence in Silurian seas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=David F. |last2=Toom |first2=Ursula |date=30 August 2017 |title=New crinoids from the Baltic region (Estonia): fossil tip-dating phylogenetics constrains the origin and Ordovician–Silurian diversification of the Flexibilia (Echinodermata) |journal=[[Palaeontology (journal)|Palaeontology]] |volume=60 |issue=6 |pages=893–910 |doi=10.1111/pala.12324 |s2cid=134049045 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2017Palgy..60..893W }}</ref> Monobathrid camerates, like flexibles, diversified in the Llandovery, whereas cyathocrinids and dendrocrinids diversified later in the Silurian.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ausich |first1=William I. |last2=Deline |first2=Bradley |date=15 November 2012 |title=Macroevolutionary transition in crinoids following the Late Ordovician extinction event (Ordovician to Early Silurian) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018212004233 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=361-362 |pages=38–48 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.07.022 |bibcode=2012PPP...361...38A |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Scyphocrinoid loboliths suddenly appeared in the terminal Silurian, shortly before the Silurian-Devonian boundary, and disappeared as abruptly as they appeared very shortly after their first appearance.<ref name="ZongGong-ZongAndGong">{{cite journal |last1=Zong |first1=Rui-wen |last2=Gong |first2=Yi-ming |date=1 November 2020 |title=Discovery of scyphocrinoid loboliths in western Junggar, Xinjiang, NW China: Implications for scyphocrinoid paleobiogeography and identification of the Silurian–Devonian boundary |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003101822030359X |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=557 |article-number=109914 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109914 |bibcode=2020PPP...55709914Z |s2cid=224964119 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Endobiotic symbionts were common in the corals and stromatoporoids.<ref name='VinnWilsonMotus2014'>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.03.041 | title = Symbiotic endobiont biofacies in the Silurian of Baltica | year = 2014 | author = Vinn, O. | author2 = wilson, M.A. | author3 = Mõtus, M.-A. | journal = [[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] | volume = 404 | pages = 24–29 | bibcode = 2014PPP...404...24V | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261372716 | access-date = 2014-06-11}}</ref><ref name='VinnMotus2008'>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1666/07-056.1 | title = The earliest endosymbiotic mineralized tubeworms from the Silurian of Podolia, Ukraine | year = 2008 | author = Vinn, O. | author2 = Mõtus, M.-A. | journal = [[Journal of Paleontology]] | volume = 82 | issue = 2 | pages = 409–414 | bibcode = 2008JPal...82..409V | s2cid = 131651974 | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222089801 | access-date = 2014-06-11}}</ref> Rugose corals especially were colonised and encrusted by a diverse range of epibionts,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zatoń |first1=Michał |last2=Wrzołek |first2=Tomasz |date=15 October 2020 |title=Colonization of rugose corals by diverse epibionts: dominance and syn vivo encrustation in a Middle Devonian (Givetian) soft-bottom habitat of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018220303448 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=556 |article-number=109899 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109899 |bibcode=2020PPP...55609899Z |s2cid=224869051 |access-date=16 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> including certain hederelloids as aforementioned.<ref name="HederelloidRugosanSymbiosis" /> [[Photosymbiotic]] scleractinians made their first appearance during the Middle Silurian.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zapalski |first=Mikołaj K. |date=22 January 2014 |title=Evidence of photosymbiosis in Palaeozoic tabulate corals |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]] |language=en |volume=281 |issue=1775 |article-number=20132663 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.2663 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=3866410 |pmid=24307674 }}</ref> Reef abundance was patchy; sometimes, fossils are frequent, but at other points, are virtually absent from the rock record.<ref name=Munnecke2010/>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Cooksonia_sp._-_MUSE.jpg|''[[Cooksonia]]'', the earliest vascular plant, middle Silurian
File:Wrens Nest Fossils 2.jpg|Silurian sea bed fossils collected from [[Wren's Nest|Wren's Nest Nature Reserve]], Dudley UK
File:Kaugatuma Bedding Plane Pridoli Estonia.jpg|[[Crinoid]] fragments in a Silurian (Pridoli) limestone ([[Saaremaa]], Estonia)
File:Wrens Nest Fossils 3.jpg|Silurian sea bed fossils collected from Wren's Nest Nature Reserve, Dudley UK
File:Eurypterus Paleoart.jpg|''[[Eurypterus]]'', a common Upper Silurian [[eurypterid]]
File:20201227 Pterygotus anglicus.png|''[[Pterygotus]]'' was a giant eurypterid that had a nearly cosmopolitan distribution (reconstruction shown here is Devonian species ''P. anglicus'')
File:Calymene celebra Raymond, 1916.jpg|Trilobites were still diverse and common in the Silurian. Fossils of ''Calymene celebra'' are extremely abundant in parts of central US.
File:HalysitesSilurian.jpg|''[[Halysites]]'' was a [[Tabulata|Tabulate coral]], an extinct group that lived through the Paleozoic
File:20211029 Parioscorpio venator.png|''[[Parioscorpio]]'' was an enigmatic arthropod from the Silurian of [[Wisconsin]]
File:Dalmanites limulurus trilobite silurian.jpg|A ''[[Dalmanites limulurus]]'' specimen from Silurian strata of [[New York City|New York]]
File:Geodized pentamerid brachiopods (Silurian; Swayzee, Indiana, USA) 1.jpg|A rock containing several geodized [[Pentamerida|pentamerid]] brachiopods from strata in [[Indiana]]
File:Sphooceras-truncatum.jpg|''[[Sphooceras]]'' was a [[Nautiloid]] [[cephalopod]] found in Silurian strata of the [[Czech Republic]]
File:Jamoytius kerwoodi.jpg|''[[Jamoytius]]'' was an enigmatic vertebrate that is possibly related to [[Anaspida|Anaspid]] fish
File:Poraspis.jpg|''[[Poraspis]],'' a genus of armored [[Agnatha|jawless fish]] from the Late Silurian of [[Canada]], [[Norway]], and the [[United States|U.S]].
File:Tujiaaspis.jpg|''[[Tujiaaspis]]'' is a [[galeaspid]] agnathan from the early Silurian ([[Telychian]]) of China, showing origin of paired fins
File:Qianodus holotype.jpg|alt=Qianodus is a tooth-based chondrichthyan genus from the early Silurian (Aeronian) of China.|''[[Qianodus]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Andreev |first1=Plamen S. |last2=Sansom |first2=Ivan J. |last3=Li |first3=Qiang |last4=Zhao |first4=Wenjin |last5=Wang |first5=Jianhua |last6=Wang |first6=Chun-Chieh |last7=Peng |first7=Lijian |last8=Jia |first8=Liantao |last9=Qiao |first9=Tuo |last10=Zhu |first10=Min |date=September 2022 |title=The oldest gnathostome teeth |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05166-2 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=609 |issue=7929 |pages=964–968 |doi=10.1038/s41586-022-05166-2 |pmid=36171375 |bibcode=2022Natur.609..964A |s2cid=252569771 |issn=1476-4687}}</ref> is a tooth-based chondrichthyan genus from the early Silurian ([[Aeronian]]) of China
File:Fanjingshania.jpg|alt=Fanjingshania is a climatiid chondrichthyan from the lower Silurian (Aeronian) described from disarticulated dermoskeletal elements.|[[Fanjingshania renovata|''Fanjingshania'']], [[Climatiiformes|climatiid]] [[Acanthodii|spiny shark]] from the lower Silurian (Aeronian) described from disarticulated dermoskeletal elements
File:Shenacanthus vermiformis.jpg|alt=Shenacanthus vermiformis[69] is jawed stem-chondrichthyan genus from the early Silurian (Telychian) of China|''[[Shenacanthus]]''<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Zhu |first1=You-an |last2=Li |first2=Qiang |last3=Lu |first3=Jing |last4=Chen |first4=Yang |last5=Wang |first5=Jianhua |last6=Gai |first6=Zhikun |last7=Zhao |first7=Wenjin |last8=Wei |first8=Guangbiao |last9=Yu |first9=Yilun |last10=Ahlberg |first10=Per E. |last11=Zhu |first11=Min |date=2022 |title=The oldest complete jawed vertebrates from the early Silurian of China |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05136-8 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=609 |issue=7929 |pages=954–958 |doi=10.1038/s41586-022-05136-8 |pmid=36171378 |bibcode=2022Natur.609..954Z |s2cid=252569910 |issn=1476-4687}}</ref> is jawed stem-chondrichthyan genus from the early Silurian (Telychian) of China
File:Xiushanosteus.jpg|''[[Xiushanosteus]]''<ref name=":0" /> is the oldest known placoderm from the early Silurian (Telychian) of China
File:Reconstruction of Entelognathus primordialis in lateral view.png|''[[Entelognathus primordialis]]'' was a [[Placodermi|Placoderm]] fish from the late Silurian
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Acacus Sandstone]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*[[Cesare Emiliani|Emiliani, Cesare]]. (1992). ''Planet Earth : Cosmology, Geology, & the Evolution of Life & the Environment''. Cambridge University Press. (Paperback Edition {{ISBN|0-521-40949-7}})
* Mikulic, DG, DEG Briggs, and J Kluessendorf. 1985. A new exceptionally preserved biota from the Lower Silurian of Wisconsin, USA. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 311B:75-86.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Moore | first1 = RA | last2 = Briggs | first2 = DEG | last3 = Braddy | first3 = SJ | last4 = Anderson | first4 = LI | last5 = Mikulic | first5 = DG | last6 = Kluessendorf | first6 = J | year = 2005 | title = A new synziphosurine (Chelicerata: Xiphosura) from the Late Llandovery (Silurian) Waukesha Lagerstatte, Wisconsin, USA | journal = Journal of Paleontology | volume = 79 | issue = 2| pages = 242–250 | doi = 10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079<0242:anscxf>2.0.co;2 | bibcode = 2005JPal...79..242M | s2cid = 56570105 }}

==External links==
{{Wikisource portal|Paleozoic#Silurian}}
{{Commons category|Silurian}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060716071827/http://www.stratigraphy.org/gssp.htm Ogg, Jim (June 2004), ''Overview of Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSP's)'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120309135815/http://palaeos.com/paleozoic/silurian/silurian.htm Palaeos:] Silurian
*[http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/silurian/silurian.html UCMP Berkeley:] The Silurian
*[http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space&sectionnav=period&period_id=14 Paleoportal: Silurian strata in U.S., state by state] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315141111/http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space&sectionnav=period&period_id=14 |date=2021-03-15 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060824004451/http://tapestry.usgs.gov/ages/silurdevon.html USGS:Silurian and Devonian Rocks (U.S.)]
* {{cite web | title=International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)| website=Geologic Time Scale 2004| url=http://www.stratigraphy.org/ | access-date=September 19, 2005}}
* [http://www.geo-lieven.com/erdzeitalter/silur/silur.htm Examples of Silurian Fossils]
*[http://www.timescalefoundation.org/resources/geowhen/stages/Silurian.html GeoWhen Database for the Silurian]
*[https://ghkclass.com/ghkC.html?silurian Silurian (Chronostratography scale)]

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