The relation of Late Ordovician glaciation to the Ordovician‐Silurian changeover in North American brachiopod faunas

Abstract

Sheehan, P. M.: The relation of Late Ordovician glaciation to the Ordovician-Silurian changeover in North American brachiopod faunas. The Ordovician-Silurian changeover of brachiopod faunas in North American epicontinental seas involved the abrupt extinction of endemic Late Ordovician stocks and subsequent repopulation of North American seas by Old World taxa. The Late Ordovician Gondwanaland glaciation may have lowered sea levels sufficiently to place severe stress on the widespread shallow marine faunas in North America, resulting in their eventual extinction. The Late Ordovician depositional history in North America is not well enough known to establish the presence of a latest Ordovician regression, but the earliest Silurian was an interval of off-lap in North America. Therefore, the glacial lowering of sea level is considered to be the most likely cause of the faunal changeover.