Paleontology and geologyDuring the Silurian, large amounts of sand and mud eroding from the ancestral Appalachian Mountains were deposited in shallow marine environments in the northern part of the state. These environments were frequently hit by tropical storms that deposited thick beds of sand, often burying the marine life that lived on the sea floor. Marine communities of the Silurian included brachiopods, cephalopods, crinoids, and some burrowers, probably trilobites. |