Tossup

A 2024 Monash University team proposed that Earth developed rings due to this geologic period’s namesake meteor event, (10[1])which deposited a huge amount of L chondrite fragments. (10[1]-5[1])The largest known cephalopod in the fossil record, Endoceras, lived during this geologic period. Limestones from this period comprise the top of Mount Everest and contain fossils from its namesake Great Biodiversification (-5[1])Event. (10[2])The appearance of the first terrestrial plants during this period (-5[1])triggered its (-5[1])Hirnantian (-5[1])glaciation, (-5[1])ultimately resulting in a mass extinction of 85% (-5[1])of marine species. (-5[2])At the end (-5[1])of this period, a gamma ray burst (10[1])may have caused (10[1])a mass extinction, the second-largest in Earth’s history and the earliest of the “Big Five” extinctions. For 10 points, what second period of the Paleozoic (-5[1])preceded the Silurian and followed (10[1])the Cambrian? (10[2])■END■ (10[6]0[7])

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