Diversification is a key property of life. Building on John Phillips' (1860) classic, iconic curve, Phanerozoic biodiversity trajectories have been based, subsequently, on the availability of additional and renewed sets of data and increasingly sophisticated analytical methods. Using relatively few single sources of data from global databases, the shapes of recent biodiversity curves for Ordovician biotas have predictably converged promoting acceptance of discrete events, aligned with relatively few peaks and discrete drivers. There has been a resistance to investigate under the curves and examine the many and varied causes of biodiversity. Most of the data available pertains to the most abundant part of the benthos, the brachiopods, and more especially their occurrences in Baltica and Laurentia together with South China. Exploration of several regional datasets, deconstructed from global curves, for some key fossil groups indicates the regions that do have their own distinctive biodiversity signals, usually associated with low-latitude settings, but also highlights significant gaps in our knowledge.

多样化是生活的重要属性。显生宙生物多样性轨迹以 John Phillips (1860) 的经典标志性曲线为基础，随后建立在额外和更新的数据集以及日益复杂的分析方法的可用性上。使用来自全球数据库的相对较少的单一数据源，奥陶纪生物群的近期生物多样性曲线的形状可以预见地收敛，促进对离散事件的接受，与相对较少的峰值和离散驱动因素一致。在曲线下进行调查并检查生物多样性的许多不同原因一直存在阻力。大多数可用数据与底栖动物、腕足动物最丰富的部分有关，尤其是它们在波罗的海和劳伦西亚以及华南地区的出现。