The lowermost Silurian of Jämtland, central Sweden: conodont biostratigraphy, correlation and biofacies

Abstract

The Late Ordovician–Early Silurian succession in Jämtland includes the marine Kogsta Siltstone, which is unconformably overlain by the shallow-water Ede Quartzite that grades into the open-marine Berge Limestone. A Hirnantia shelly fauna dates the uppermost Kogsta Siltstone as Hirnantian, and shelly fossils indicate an Aeronian age for the Berge Limestone. Biostratigraphically highly diagnostic conodonts of the early-middle Aeronian Pranognathus tenuis Zone provide the first firm date of the Upper Ede Quartzite and the lowermost Berge Limestone. The Lower Ede Quartzite has not yielded fossils, but sedimentological data suggest it to be of Hirnantian age and reflect the glacio-eustatic low-stand. The contact between the Lower and Upper Ede Quartzite, here taken to be the Ordovician–Silurian boundary, appears to be an unconformity associated with a stratigraphic gap that at least includes the Rhuddanian Stage. The biostratigraphically important conodonts Pranognathus tenuis, Kockelella? manitoulinensis, and Pranognathus siluricus are recorded from Sweden for the first time, and these and other conodonts are used for correlations with coeval units in Europe and North America. In a regional review of Aeronian conodont faunas, three intergrading, apparently depth-related, conodont biofacies are recognised, the Jämtland conodonts representing the one characteristic of the shallowest water.