Prehistoric Coral Image 1
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Prehistoric Coral (Image 1)

August 1, 2011
A group of solitary horn corals, an extinct group of corals that belong to the Paleozoic evolutionary fauna. They are preserved in carbonate and are Ordovician in age (~450 million years old). They were found in southwestern Wisconsin.


A National Science Foundation supported-study by Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics, found that changes in ocean environments related to sea level exert a driving influence on rates of extinction, which animals and plants survive or vanish, and generally determine the composition of life in the oceans. Since life began on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, scientists believe there may have been as many as 23 mass extinction events, and, during the past 540 million years, there have been five, well-documented mass extinctions, primarily of marine plants and animals, with as many as 75-95 percent of species lost.


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