home   Printer friendly version Add to site
Advanced search
Time & Space Fossil Gallery Famous Flora & Fauna
Careers Resources K-12 Collections PaleoPeople

The Ordovician in Arkansas, US

Ordovician in Arkansas map

undifferentiated rock units help

Choose a time period:

Quaternary
Tertiary
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian

Ordovician Fossils

No slide show is available for the Ordovician in Arkansas.

Search the fossil gallery

Paleontology and geology

There was no tectonic activity in Arkansas during the Ordovician. Shallow marine environments covered the northern part of the state, and layers of carbonate sediment built up on the sea floor. These are preserved today as limestone. Brachiopods, corals, gastropods, crinoids, bryozoans, and trilobites thrived in the warm waters, and their fossils can be found in these limestones. Sands and muds accumulated in the deeper waters that covered the southern part of the state. The shale that formed from the deep sea mud is black and contains fossils of graptolites, along with rare fossils of inarticulate brachiopods and sponges.


Missouri State Map
Tennessee  State Map
Mississippi State Map
Texas State Map
Oklahoma State Map
Louisiana State Map