@deeptimevisualised: The ocean abandoned its life. More than 440 million years ago, the shallow seas of the Ordovician Period were crowded with trilobites, brachiopods, sea lilies, and giant straight-shelled cephalopods. Then the planet cooled. Ice spread across Gondwana. Sea levels fell. The ocean retreated from the places where marine life was most concentrated, turning living seafloor into empty ground. Up to 85% of marine species disappeared during the Late Ordovician mass extinction, not because of an asteroid, but because the world’s richest shallow-water habitats began to vanish. And when parts of the ocean later became oxygen-poor, the Ordovician seas were never fully restored. Would you find extinction by asteroid more terrifying — or extinction by the sea slowly pulling away? Follow @DeepTimeVisualised for the full story of Earth Through Time. #MassExtinction #OrdovicianPeriod #Paleontology #PrehistoricOcean #EarthHistory

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Wednesday 03 June 2026 18:30:03 GMT