From Mass Death to the Age of Fishes: Climate Crisis That Shaped Ancient Oceans
The 'Age of Fishes' Began with Mass Death
The “Age of Fishes” sounds peaceful, but new fossil database research reveals it emerged from extraordinary planetary trauma. Around 445 million years ago, Earth shifted rapidly from a warm greenhouse world to an icy “icehouse” climate. Expanding glaciers over the supercontinent Gondwana drained shallow seas and disrupted ocean chemistry. This Late Ordovician crisis wiped out most marine species, yet it also rewrote evolutionary opportunities.
How Mass Death Reshaped Ancient Oceans
As ecosystems collapsed, surviving vertebrates retreated into scattered marine refuges. In these isolated pockets, early jawed fishes diversified, filling vacancies left by vanished invertebrates and eel‑like swimmers. Over millions of years, these resilient pioneers rebuilt food webs, turning devastation into innovation. Paleontologists, drawing on a vast fossil database, now frame this event as an ecological reset, not a clean slate. For SEO seekers and science readers alike, the message is striking: extinction can drive long‑term evolutionary creativity.
