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More Info about the Ordovician Pannotia, the supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian Era, approximately 600 million years ago, had already begun to break apart by the beginning of the Paleozoic Era. A new ocean, the Iapetus Ocean, widened between the ancient continents of Laurentia (North America), Baltica (Northern Europe), and Siberia. Gondwana, the supercontinent that was assembled during the Pan-African orogeny, was the largest continent at this time, stretching from the Equator to the South Pole. During the Ordovician Period, warm water deposits, such as limestones and salt, were found in the equatorial regions of Gondwana (Australia, India, China, and Antarctica), while glacial deposits and ice-rafted debris occurred in the south polar areas of Gondwana (Africa and South America). |