Middle‐Upper Ordovician trilobites and stratigraphy along the Kyrkbäcken rivulet in the Röstånga area, southern Sweden

Abstract

Middle‐Upper Ordovician strata are well exposed along the Kyrkbäcken rivulet in the Röstånga area of Scania. The investigated sequence, comprising c. 25 m and dipping c. 40° towards the south, consists largely of siliceous limestones, mudstones, shales, and K‐benton‐ites. The section is generally richly fossiliferous and has yielded bivalves, brachiopods, cephalopods, gastropods, graptolites, ostracodes, conodonts, and trilobites. Nineteen trilobite species have been identified. The stratigraphical subdivision is based on the succession of trilobites and on lithology. The lower part of the section represents the Sularp Shale and contains a great number of K‐bentonites. It is overlain by the Skagen Limestone. Black, bituminous limestones or dark grey, calcareous mudstones containing, e.g, Tretaspis ceriodes, are referred to the Mossen Formation. The middle and upper part of the section contains shales of the Jerrestad Formation, which has yielded a diverse trilobite fauna containing, among others, Amphitryon radians, Opsima‐saphus jaanussoni, Liocnemis recurvus, Lonchodomas portlocki, Panderia megalophthalma, and Raphiophorus tenellus.

Pâlsson, C., 1996: Middle‐Upper Ordovician trilobites and stratigraphy along the Kyrkbäcken rivulet in the Röstånga area, southern Sweden. GFF, Vol. 118 (Pt. 3, September), pp. 151–162. Stockholm. ISSN 1103–5897.

Keywords:

• Stratigraphy
• lithology
• taxonomy
• trilobites
• Kyrkbäcken rivulet
• Röstånga
• Scania
• Sweden
• Middle‐Upper Ordovician
• Skagen Limestone
• Sularp Shale
• Mossen Formation
• Jerrestad Formation