Marco Vecoli

TL;DR: The early Palaeozoic phytoplankton (acritarch) radiation paralleled a long-term increase in sea level between the Early Cambrian and the Late Ordovician as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The Hirnantian GSSP in south China is tentatively correlated with latest Ordovician strata from the peri-Gondwanan “glacial” regions as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The most important Cambro-Ordovician acritarch bio-events are short periods of diversification, which also correspond to introduction of morphological innovations, observed in latest Cambrian and earliest Tremadoc, late tremor, early Arenig, basal Llanvirn, and latest Ashgill, and an important extinction phase in the early Caradoc as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: Combined microtomography, geochemistry, and sedimentary analysis suggest a biota fossilized during early diagenesis follows a rise in atmospheric oxygen, consistent with the idea that surface oxygenation allowed the evolution and ecological expansion of complex megascopic life.

TL;DR: A review of recent published and new data on Avalonia east of the Midlands Microcraton is given in this paper, where a model of anticlockwise rotation of Avalonia of about 55° from Caradoc to Emsian is proposed to explain the deposition setting of megasequence 3 and the subsequent Acadian and Brabantian deformation.