ancient oceans
Seas long vanished
Ancient oceans are the bodies of water that covered Earth in prehistoric times, before the continents assumed their current positions.
Geologists study ancient oceans to understand climate history, fossil distribution, and plate tectonics: The Tethys was an ancient ocean that once separated the supercontinents.
The phrase also appears in popular science and documentary contexts to evoke deep time.
- DevonianGeologic period, 419-359 million years ago
- stromatolitesLayered sedimentary bacterial structures
- OrdovicianPaleozoic geological period
- Tethys SeaVanished equatorial ocean
- CambrianEarliest Paleozoic period
Cretaceous · deep time · fossil record · ammonites · trilobites · continental drift · stratigraphy · paleoecology · hydrothermal vents · radiometric dating · Jurassic · sea level changes · cyanobacteria · marine reptiles · brachiopods · plate tectonics · seafloor · ocean floor