Silurian
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the Silures or their country.
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Geology. noting or pertaining to a period of the Paleozoic Era, occurring from 425 to 405 million years ago, notable for the advent of air-breathing animals and terrestrial plants.
noun
adjective
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of, denoting, or formed in the third period of the Palaeozoic era, between the Ordovician and Devonian periods, which lasted for 25 million years, during which fishes first appeared
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of or relating to the Silures
noun
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The third period of the Paleozoic Era, from about 438 to 408 million years ago. During this time glaciers that formed during the late Ordovician melted, causing sea levels to rise. The first coral reefs, fish with jaws, and freshwater fish appeared, and jawless fish continued to spread rapidly. The first vascular plants also appeared, as did land invertebrates including relatives of spiders and centipedes.
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See Chart at geologic time
Other Word Forms
- post-Silurian adjective
- pre-Silurian adjective
Etymology
Origin of Silurian
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To understand how this played out, the research team assembled an extensive fossil database spanning two centuries of late Ordovician and early Silurian paleontology.
From Science Daily • Jan. 11, 2026
By the end of the Silurian, jawed fishes began to appear; the advantage of jaws is that it makes for better hunters, which allowed such fish to better pass down their genes.
From Salon • Oct. 1, 2022
As paleontologists continue to dig deeper into early Silurian rocks in China, they’ve uncovered even more fish species.
From New York Times • Sep. 28, 2022
The fossils date back to the Silurian period, an important era for life on earth from 443 million years ago to 419 million years ago.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 28, 2022
Cambrian comes from the Roman name for Wales, while Ordovician and Silurian recall ancient Welsh tribes, the Ordovices and Silures.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
