Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period from about 443.8 to 419.2 million years ago, following the Ordovician and preceding the Devonian. It saw the recovery of marine ecosystems and the spread of vascular plants onto land.

Geologic time scale: A chronological system that divides Earth's history into nested eons, eras, periods, and epochs. The Silurian is one period within this hierarchy.
Iapetus Ocean: An ancient ocean that separated several continental masses before closing during the Paleozoic. Its closure accompanied continental collisions during the Silurian.
Cooksonia: An extinct genus of small, branching vascular plants known from Silurian and Devonian fossils. Its fossils document early vascular plants on land during the period.
Wenlock Series: The middle series of the Silurian, spanning roughly 433.4 to 427.4 million years ago. Its rocks preserve diverse Silurian marine fossils.
Roderick Murchison: A Scottish geologist who established the Silurian as a geological system in the 1830s. He named and defined the system using rocks in Wales and the Welsh Borderlands.
Ordovician: A geologic period preceding the Silurian, lasting from about 485.4 to 443.8 million years ago. Its end marks the start of the Silurian.
Caledonian orogeny: A mountain-building event caused by collisions involving Laurentia, Baltica, and Avalonia. Its collisions reshaped regions along the closing Iapetus Ocean.
Vascular plant: A plant with specialized tissues that transport water and nutrients through its body. Vascular plants became established on land in the Silurian.
Ludlow Series: The third series of the Silurian, spanning roughly 427.4 to 423 million years ago. Its strata record marine environments before the period's final series.
Silures: An ancient people of southeastern Wales and nearby regions during the Roman period. Murchison named the Silurian after this people.

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