ventilation; advection upward of waters potentially toxic to many organisms into the lower part of the ocean mixed layer; the cooling and then warming of ocean surface water temperatures; and changes in nutrient availability in many nearshore marine environments. The most prominent organismal (Table 2.3) mass mortality in the Late Ordovician took place at or close to the Rawtheyan-Hirnantian Stage boundary. Many graptolites, brachiopods, trilobites, corals, and chitinozoans became extinct or were markedly reduced in numbers and taxonomic diversity at that time. Isotopic studies of brachiopod shells from Sweden (Middleton et al., 1988; Marshall and
TABLE 2.3 Significant Physical Environmental Changes, Organismal Mass Extinctions, and Clade Turnovers in the Latest Ordovician
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