End Ordovician extinctions : A coincidence of causes
The end Ordovician (Hirnantian) extinction was the first of the five big Phanerozoic extinction events, and the first that involved metazoan-based communities. It comprised two discrete pulses, both linked in different ways to an intense but short-lived glaciation at the South Pole. The first, occurring at, or just below, the Normalograptus extraordinarius graptolite Biozone, mainly affected nekto
