in the Rheic Ocean on the outer edges of what was then the Gondwanan shelf during the Silurian, was a major hotspot of plant biodiversity during the early stages of the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution. The geologically rapid environmental changes associated with the formation and erosion of volcanic islands and high rates of endemism associated with island ecosystems likely played an important role in driving the rapid early diversification of vascular plants. It is believed that the closure of the Rheic, alongside the simultaneous onset of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, may have sparked the Carboniferous-Earliest Permian Biodiversification Event, an evolutionary radiation of marine life dominated by increase in species richness of fusulinids and brachiopods. See also Sources References Bibliography External links Website of the PALEOMAP Project Middle Silurian paleoglobe showing the expanding Rheic Ocean Early Carboniferous paleoglobe showing the almost disappeared Rheic Ocean Historical oceans Cambrian paleogeography Ordovician paleogeography Silurian bodies of water Devonian paleogeography Carboniferous paleogeography