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Why was the Ordovician System named after the Ordovices of northern Wales?
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Ordovician Period
The distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the Ordovician Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.
The Ordovician System was named by English geologist Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a scientific dispute regarding the boundaries of the Cambrian and Silurian systems.12
During the late 19th century, geologists Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison had expanded their respective Cambrian and Silurian systems until they overlapped, creating a contentious interval of rock strata that both claimed. Lapworth proposed the "Ordovician" name to define this specific, disputed overlapping interval. He chose the name to honor the Ordovices, an ancient Celtic tribe that inhabited northern Wales, the region where the rock successions were being studied.12