Sandbian Age

Evidence of Sphagnum-like remains

The Sandbian Epoch (459-453 Ma) occurs during the Late Ordovician Period, that occurs after the Darriwilian, and before the Katian.

Geologic Age

  • 458.4±0.9–453.0±0.7 Ma

Eon / Era / Period / Epoch

What happened during this time?

  • These Ordovician sediments possess 15 species of miospores

    • Naked laevigate monads; naked fused dyads (i.e. Pseudodyadospora); naked fused tetrads (i.e. Tetrahedraletes); naked unfused tetrads (i.e. Stegambiquadrella); smooth envelope enclosed dyads (i.e. Segestrespora); envelope enclosed ornamented tetrads; naked unfused dyads (i.e.Dyadospora); ornamented envelope enclosed dyads (i.e. Segestrespora); smooth envelope enclosed tetrads (i.e. Velatitetras); ornamented envelope enclosed tetrads (i.e. Velatitetras); envelope enclosed monads (i.e. Sphaerasaccus);

  • Many are bryophyte-like spores found in these Middle Ordovician sediments

  • Other possible miospore types

  • Macrofossils of plants are found as smooth tubes, similar to hydroids.

  • Peat moss–like vegetative remains found in 455 Ma sediments from Wisconsin (Cardona-Correa et al. 2016)

Above: Multicellular organic fragments similar to Sphagnum found in 455 Ma sediments from Wisconsin (Cardona-Correa et al. 2016)