Abstract
Between the end Ordovician and mid-Upper Devonian extinctions there are no major bioevents. There are, though, a number of minor bio-events. Recognizable with shelly benthos are bio-events in the C2–C3 interval of the Upper Llandovery, in the early Wenlock, late Wenlock, late Ludlow, Silurian-Devonian boundary, near the base of the Emsian, near the end of the Eifelian, and near the end of the Givetian. The last two coincide in time with what may have been global lowerings of the climatic patterns. The first, also, may have involved a gateway. The correlation of extensive black shales, some rich in graptolites or other pelagic organisms, with these bio-events is not easy to see. Ranking these lower level bio-events is of questionable significance since we do not presently have any truly “objective ”criteria possessed of real biologic significance (mere taxon counting is certainly not the answer).
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Boucot, A.J. (1990). Silurian and pre-Upper Devonian bio-events. In: Kauffman, E.G., Walliser, O.H. (eds) Extinction Events in Earth History. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, vol 30. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0011140
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0011140
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