ABSTRACT The shell wall in ammonoids contains a pore-canal network similar to that detected recently in the shell wall of the Ordovician nautiloid Orthoceras. In the Jurassic monomorphic ammonoids Quenstedtoceras, Cosmoceras, Lissoceras and the Cretaceous heteromorphic ammonoid Ptychoceras investigated in this study vertical canals arranged in parallel rows, are partially preserved, although no horizontal canals are preserved as in Orthoceras. In Quenstedtoceras and Ptychoceras the vertical canals extend not only through the inner prismatic layer, as in Orthoceras, but also through the nacreous layer. Therefore both layers were secreted on the body-shell attachment band behind the apertural margin. In the juvenile shells, only the very thin outer prismatic layer formed the apertural margin. As in Orthoceras, the canals had walls of calcified organic fibres that were partially or entirely dissolved during diagenesis. The pore-canal network in the shell wall of Quenstedtoceras and Ptychoceras contributed to achieving neutral buoyancy. As indicated by the high numbers of mini-pores in the connecting rings, the siphuncle was employed for adjusting buoyancy during vertical migrations. The “wrinkles”, “furrows”, “pits”, “dots”, “ridges”, “Ritzsteifen” and “Runselschicht” in the “wrinkle layer”, previously described in the ammonoid shell walls, are remnants of the pore-canal network.

ABSTRACT Recent theories on the growth of continental crust stress its formation in pre-Archean and Archean times with minor additions at later times. The Earth has gone through a unidirectional evolution including surface changes, the genesis of life and an important loss of energy. The energy loss drives tectonic processes, but at a rate declining with available energy and thus with time. Semiquantitative modelling of energy-changes and transport indicates important differences between today’s Earth and the Paleoproterozoic Earth. Actualistic but non-uniformitarian arguments suggest that principal tectonic processes have changed over time. The Baltic Shield displays a fundamental difference in conditions between the c. 0.9 Ga high-pressure metamorphism including the occurrence of eclogite in the western Sveconorwegian Orogen and c. 2 Ga low-pressure metamorphism in the eastern Svecokarelian Orogen. This suggests that modern platetectonic processes were operative at c. 0.9 Ga but leaves the question whether it was active during the Svecokarelian orogeny open. The lack of eclogite in the Svecokarelian Orogen is explained with a change with time of the geotherm slope. The occurrence of two generations of granitic rocks of different compositions in the Svecokarelian is easily explained by an increased mantle heat flow in a stratified continental crust. In contrast to calc-alkaline platetectonic compositions, alkali-calcic rocks occur in a quarter-circle around the Svecokarelian core. The question arises whether modern plate-processes successively replaced proto-plate processes during Paleo- and Mesoproterozoic times.

ABSTRACT Rhombotrypella superangustata and Dyscritellina fuglensis (Bryozoa, Trepostomata) were found for the first time in the Assistance Formation of Ellesmere Island, Canada. Both species correlate the Roadian age of the Assistance Formation with contemporary deposits in Northern Russia and Bjørnøya, Norway. They possess robust erect colonies adapted for shallow shelf conditions with moderate energy depositional environment with low sedimentation rate and hard substrate.

ABSTRACT The precipitation of both biotic and abiotic calcium carbonate is of great importance in modern and ancient global biogeochemical cycles. In the present-day oceans, the widespread precipitation of inorganic CaCO3 on the seafloor or in the water column is possible only under extraordinary circumstances. By contrast, in the geological record, authigenic seafloor carbonate cements were widespread in the supersaturated, anoxic oceans of the Precambrian. Widespread authigenic carbonate precipitation ceased by the end of the Neoproterozoic as a consequence of global oceanic oxygenation: in the Phanerozoic, it occurred only during major anoxic events (for example, at the Permian/Triassic boundary) or in restricted, stagnant basins. Here, we present an anomalous record of CaCO3 precipitation from the Cambrian Alum Shale Basin of the Baltica palaeocontinent with Precambrian-like authigenic, seafloor encrusting, crystalline carbonates. The depositional environment of this well-recognized, cool-water, stagnant anoxic basin favoured local carbonate precipitation via the surplus generation of alkalinity in anoxic bottom waters. However, the correlation of the acme of authigenic carbonate formation with the onset and peak of the Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) suggests a driver−trigger relation between the two phenomena. On a smaller scale, carbonate authigenic precipitation is manifested by a cement-supported texture of the limestone intercalations in the Alum Shale facies. Instantaneous calcification of the faunal remains, termed here the Snedronningen phenomenon, must have been of great importance in the formation of Orsten-type Konservat Lagerstätten.

ABSTRACT The origin of the more than 100 km wide Lycksele ring structure in Sweden has puzzled geoscientists for years. In this short note we present results from field analysis, detailed sampling and laboratory analysis executed in search for evidence of an impact, e.g. shatter cones and shock features in minerals. Both approaches gave negative results and consequently an impact origin could neither be confirmed nor rejected. The circular structure of the Lycksele ring and its central uplift are, however, typical features of large, complex impact structures.

ABSTRACT Two new species of graptolite are described from the lower part of the Spirograptus turriculatus Biozone (lower Telychian) of Kallholn Quarry, Dalarna, Sweden. Pristiograptus paradoxus sp. nov. is ventrally curved and is more similar to uppermost Wenlock–Ludlow Bohemograptus species than to other Llandovery Pristiograptus species. Torquigraptus loveridgei sp. nov. is stratigraphically intermediate between the well-known species, T. planus and T. proteus.

ABSTRACTTwo described specimens of the gastropod Bellerophon tenuifascia J. de C. Sowerby, 1824, from the Carboniferous (Asbian) of the Isle of Man, United Kingdom, preserve repaired injuries resulting from environmental breakage and failed, non-lethal, predatory attacks. Deep scars attributed to predatory attacks are assigned to the ichnofossil Caedichnus and were focused on the mid-dorsal area of the aperture. Abundant small-scale scallops and chipping of growth lamellae distributed around the apertural margin are mainly the result of environmental damage. A deeply incised injury in the aperture of one specimen was probably a fatal injury.

ABSTRACTA sample of fine-grained grey Stockholm granite from the Frescati area just north of central Stockholm, east-central Sweden, earlier dated to 1803 +23/−19 Ma by the U-Pb zircon method using TIMS on multigrain fractions, has been reanalyzed using the Nordsim ion microprobe. The new age obtained, 1792±4 Ma, is more precise, and replaces the earlier highly discordant date. It agrees well with other ages for the formation of the Stockholm-type granites and related pegmatites, indicating an age of around 1.79 Ga for this late-orogenic Svecofennian granite magmatism. The Stockholm granite thus formed toward the end of the 1.83–1.79 Ga late Svecofennian metamorphic phase, and crosscuts earlier formed migmatitic gneiss structures in a brittle manner at the present-day level of exposure.

The Lower Ordovician Bjørkåsholmen Formation at Flagabro, Scania, southern Sweden, consists of a 0.8 m thick succession of carbonates with three siliciclastic mudstones, 5, 1 and 100 mm thick, intercalated in the central part of the unit. Carbonate and siliciclastic mudstone beds show both normal and inverse grading. The carbonates are mud-rich and subdivided into a mudstone, a wackestone and a packstone facies. Grain types in the carbonates are mostly shells and shell fragments of brachiopods and trilobites. The carbonate rocks are strongly bioturbated seen as in roundish burrows filled with mud and a clear cement; additionally, bioturbation is reflected in the random orientation of shells. The siliciclastic mudstones are subdivided into two facies; one contains large amounts of shells and is in part grain-supported, the other is matrix-dominated and laminated to massive. The succession reflects sedimentation on a low-inclined shelf equivalent to a mid-ramp to basinal setting. Most mud- and wackestones (facies 3 and 4) represent fair-weather sedimentation, and the intercalated wacke- and packstones (facies 4 and 5) represent concentration of shell debris during high-energy storm. The siliciclastic mudstones in the central part of the succession reflect deposition in a basinal setting. The entire Bjørkåsholmen Formation at Flagabro is equivalent to a lowstand of third (?) order without a well-developed internal cyclicity and is in that respect similar to the Bjørkåsholmen Formation of Öland, but different from the age-equivalent Norwegian sections.

Late Sandbian to early Katian δ13Ccarb chemostratigraphy has in Norway been described in only two previous reports that dealt with two geographically rather widely separated areas, namely the Oslo-Asker district and the Nes-Hamar district. No data have been available from the Ordovician outcrop areas between these districts that could help clarify the partly unclear regional stratigraphic relations across the Oslo region. A chemostratigraphic study of the classical road section at Tønnerud in the northwestern Hadeland district about halfway between the previously investigated districts resulted in the recognition of two δ13C excursions, namely one in the uppermost Furuberget Formation tentatively identified as the Guttenberg Isotopic Carbon Excursion and one in the lower Solvang Formation that is classified as the KOPE (RAKVERE) excursion. Based on these results, the Furuberget and Solvang formations are interpreted to be separated by a significant gap in the study area corresponding to the Oandu and lower Rakvere regional Baltoscandic stages. This suggests that the Tønnerud succession is less complete stratigraphically than those in the Oslo-Asker district. Similar gaps are not uncommon in this interval in Baltoscandia and in North America and probably reflect both eustatic and local epeirogenetic movements that make it difficult to establish a regionally applicable sequence stratigraphy.