The collapse of tropical forests during Earth's most catastrophic extinction event was the primary cause of the prolonged ...

The study challenges the idea that the climate of northern Africa dried out around 3 million years ago, a time when the ...

In summary, this study establishes a precise absolute chronological timescale for the Ordovician-Silurian transition, refines the duration and tempo of LOME, and reveals that the rate of climate ...

More information: Zhutong Zhang et al, Tempo of the Late Ordovician mass extinction controlled by the rate of climate change, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv6788 ...

During the Ordovician Period, a time of significant changes for Earth’s life-forms, plate tectonics and climate, the planet experienced a peak in meteorite strikes.

The proposed ring system could also explain a climate quirk of the Ordovician. Within the Ordovician is a smaller period called the Hirnantian Age, characterized by a precipitous drop in temperatures.

(CNN) — Famously known for its extensive ring system, Saturn is one of four planets in our solar system that have the distinctive feature. And now, scientists hypothesize that Earth may have sported ...

This period, which occurred near the end of the Ordovician, is recognized as one of the coldest in the last 500 million years of Earth’s history. “The idea that a ring system could have ...

And—according to a study recently published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters —during an era known as the Ordovician period, it may have once had rings. Seriously.

Around 460 million years ago, during the Ordovician period, Earth experienced two very odd events that have left researchers scratching their heads.

In a discovery that could reshape our understanding of Earth’s ancient history, researchers have found evidence suggesting that our planet may have once had a ring system around 466 million years ago.

An artist's conception of the Earth as it may have appeared 466 million years agoOliver Hull/Monash University If astronomers had been walking the Earth 466 million years ago, they may have had ...