The great Ordovician radiation of marine life: Examples from South China

The Ordovician radiation is the earliest and most important biodiversification event in the evolution of the Paleozoic Evolutionary Fauna (PEF), when the basic framework of PEF was established. The radiation underwent a gradual, protracted process spanning more than 40 million years and was marked by several diversity maxima of the PEF. Case studies conducted on the Upper Yangtze Platform (South China Palaeoplate) showed that the Ordovician radiation was characterized by drastic increases in α- and β-diversity in various groups of organisms. During the radiation, brachiopods, trilobites, and graptolites of the PEF became more diverse to dominate over the Cambrian Evolutionary Fauna (CEF) in all marine environments. At either global or regional scales, however, the Ordovician radiation was highly heterogeneous in time and space, and the rate and pattern of radiation exhibited by different major fossil groups were also variable.