Early Ordovician
Evidence of earliest plant spores
Evidence of earliest plant spores
The Early Ordovician (485-470 Ma) is a time period that occurs after the Furongian (Cambian), and before the Dapingian (Middle Ordovician).
Geologic Age
Geologic Age
485.4–470.0 Ma
Subdivisions
Subdivisions
Floian: 477.7±1.4–470.0±1.4 Ma
Tremadocian: 485.4±1.9–477.7±1.4 Ma
Eon / Era / Period / Epoch
Eon / Era / Period / Epoch
What happened during this time?
What happened during this time?
Earliest confirmed plant micro-fossils (Gray et al., 1982; Rubenstein et al., 2010; Kenrick et al., 2012; Vecoli et al., 2017)
Evidence of bryophyte-like spores around 476 Ma (Shaw and Renzaglia 2004)
The presence of permanent cryptospores may indicate evidence that eophytes were on the landscape (Edwards et al. 2021)
The Early Ordovician marks the start of the Eoembryophytic Evolutionary Level (Gray, 1993), in which the first embryophytes were probably established