Tectonics, islands and island hopping in the Early Palaeozoic benthos

Analyses confirm the roles of the oceanic provinces as both cradles and museums of evolution (Harper & Mac Niocaill, 2002), with reference to the development of the global brachiopod fauna through the Floian-Sandbian (mid Early – early Late Ordovician) interval. Moreover, groups of taxa with particularly widespread distributions during the Dapingian-Darriwilian were possible island hoppers, taking advantage of the spectrum of disparate terranes generated by the magmatic and tectonic activity of the period.