Scientists use fossils to discover the ancient equator
(Phys.org)—Researchers at Western University have discovered where the equator was "precisely located" 450 million years ago, which is an important breakthrough for paleontologists and planetary scientists, as well as private and public mineral resource companies. The findings have been published in the journal Geology and were highlighted in today's Editor's Choice section of Science. Jisuo Jin and Phil McCausland from Western's Department of Earth Sciences led an international research team that successfully traced a 6,000-kilometre stretch of fossils which proved the Ordovician equator ran through Northern Greenland, Manitoba (Canada), Utah and Nevada. The Ordovician geologic period, the second oldest of six of the Paleozoic Era, began 488.3 million years ago, following the Cambrian period, and ended 443.7 million years ago.