This project will synthesize the global record of zoogeographic and paleoenvironmental distribution of Late Ordovician to Middle Silurian brachiopods. The effects of the massive Ordovician-Silurian extinction event on zoogeography and paleoecology will be traced in order to examine rates of recovery and reorganization. Preliminary results indicating that wide distribution of brachiopods promoted survival during the extinction will be examined more closely, and the pattern will be examined to see whether or not it holds in each of six paleoenvironmental zones arrayed from shallow to deep environments. Construction of time-environment diagrams will permit detailed examination of the evolutionary history and environmental distribution of brachiopod groups.
