Lower Silurian biostratigraphy of the Viirelaid core, western Estonia

Abstract

The distribution of five groups of fossils in the upper Llandovery (Telychian) and Wenlock of the Viirelaid core section, Estonia, is presented and discussed in terms of their biozones (conodonts and chitinozoans) and mutual positions (scolecodonts, ostracods, and brachiopods). Graphical correlation of the Viirelaid and Paatsalu sections shows a stronger linear correlation for zonal conodonts than for chitinozoans and scolecodonts. In the given case, this is caused by different nature of zones: chitinozoan zones are based on appearances and/or disappearances of ordinal taxa whereas conodont zonation corresponds, as a rule, to evolutionary succeeding species in the Pterospathodus lineage. At the same time, the positions of chitinozoan zones in the Viirelaid, Ruhnu, Aizpute, and Paatsalu cores are oscillating with respect to conodont zones.

Keywords

• conodonts
• chitinozoans
• ostracods
• scolecodonts
• brachiopods
• biostratigraphy
• Silurian
• Estonia