High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya (million years ago), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya (ICS, 2004). As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period`s start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by several million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a major extinction event when 60% of marine species were wiped out. See Ordovician-Silurian extinction events.