Anders Lindskog

Kristianstad University | HKR

Marine biodiversity increased markedly during the Ordovician Period (~487–443 million years ago). Some intervals within the Ordovician were associated with unusually rapid and prominent rises in taxonomic richness, the reasons for which remain debated. Links between increased oxygenation and biodiversification have been proposed, although supportin...

The graptolites of the Tøyen Shale Formation of Kinnekulle in Västergötland, south-central Sweden, are described for the first time and their biostratigraphic distribution is documented from drill core and outcrop material. The faunas indicate an age of mid to late Floian (Billingenian), thus showing a reduced biostratigraphic range of the Tøyen Sh...

The “Likhall” bed is a rare case of a single-age zircon population from a carbonate rock, which in this case is contextualised with remarkable biotic and environmental changes and with meteorite bombardment of Earth after an asteroid breakup in space. Published high-precision chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (...

The Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) mass extinction about 66 Ma ago was one of Earth's largest mass extinction events. The demise of calcifiers, among others, influenced biogeochemical cycles and changed the conditions for carbonate deposition in the global ocean. This study addresses the sedimentology and carbonate microfacies of the Cerithium Limest...

One of the most complete, spectacular and most thoroughly documented sections of Ordovician cool to temperate water limestones, globally. It is significant in understanding the Ordovician world.

The 'Likhall' zircon bed is a rare case of a single-age zircon population from a carbonate rock, which in this case is contextualised with remarkable biotic and environmental changes as well as meteorite bombardment of Earth after an asteroid breakup in space. Published chemical-abrasion, high-precision isotope-dilution, thermal ionization mass spe...

Stop 2. Tomten quarry

Stop 5. Hällekis quarry

Stop 4. Högkullen, Kinnekulle

The Silurian Period, a dynamic interval within the Phanerozoic Era, experienced notable climate shifts, fluctuations in the global carbon cycle, and multiple extinctions, including the mid-Silurian Mulde/lundgreni event at ~428 Ma. This Mulde/lundgreni event caused significant declines in various marine organisms, notably graptolites (with a reduct...

The oxygen content of ancient oceans has been postulated as a major controlling factor for biodiversity throughout Earth’s history. One of the most notable increases in marine biodiversity occurs within the Ordovician Period (~487–443 million years ago), commonly referred to as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event or Ordovician Radiation....

Geological and palaeoenvironmental background information, locality descriptions, supplementary figure and data tables.

The zircon-rich ‘Likhall’ bed found in the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) ‘Täljsten‘ interval, Sweden, is a rare phenomenon of a single zircon U-Pb age population preserved in a carbonate rock ( ‘crypto-tephra’ [1]). It is contextualised with biodiversification during the ‘main phase’ of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE [2]) and...

The Lanna area in the province of Närke, south-central Sweden, hosts a succession of cool-water carbonate strata that are largely devoid of tectonic and diagenetic alteration, and span the Floian through lower Darriwilian Global stages (Ottenbyan–Kundan Regional stages). In this study we assess the integrated biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic...

Fluctuations in marine oxygen concentrations have been invoked as a primary driver for changes in biodiversity throughout Earth history. Expansions in reducing marine conditions are commonly invoked as key causal mechanisms for mass extinctions, while increases in marine oxygenation are becoming an increasingly common causal mechanism invoked for b...

Tracking climatic changes throughout the Ordovician is crucial to a better understanding of the coevolution of life and environment on Earth. Ordovician climate fluctuations have been the subject of a vigorous and productive body of work over the past two decades. Here we present a synthesis of studies that have focused on reconstructing Ordovician...

The Ordovician of Scandinavia (i.e. Denmark, Norway and Sweden) have been investigated for over two centuries, and through time various chronostratigraphic schemes have been introduced, facilitating regional correlation. However, a modern chronostratigraphy has never been proposed. Here, we delineate ten regional stages for the Ordovician of Scandi...

A global carbonate stratigraphic framework is needed to test models of paleoenvironmental change, but provinciality of age-diagnostic fossils and local controls on chemostratigraphic tools such as marine carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) have historically made long-distance correlation a difficult task. Radiogenic strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) of...

Conodont apatite is ubiquitous in Paleozoic shallow- to deep-water carbonate sediments and has served as a crucial archive of seawater 87Sr/86Sr. However, some datasets have reported diagenetically altered 87Sr/86Sr values in apparently well-preserved conodont samples, highlighting a lack of understanding of the factors that affect 87Sr/86Sr signal...

In this chapter, we explore the constellation of things in the museum assembled by the Swedish physician and university professor Kilian Stobæus (1690–1742). In particular, we focus on fossils, objects that interested Stobæus the most and were probably the first specimens in his collections. We examine the mechanisms of collecting – the modes in wh...

Drepanoistodus basiovalis (Sergeeva, 1963) is a common conodont species in Middle Ordovician strata of Baltica. For many years it has been widely accepted that the species encompasses a wide range of morphological plasticity. Hence, several different morphotypes that significantly deviate from the holotype have nonetheless been included in the broa...

Investigation of large populations of peteinoid acritarchs recovered from Middle Ordovician strata of the Hälludden and Horns Udde quarry sections (Öland, Sweden) allows for statistical analyses based on morphometric measurements. The results indicate the presence of assemblages with a continuous variability of morphotypes, thus a distinction of di...

In 2006, a new species of non-calcified dasycladalean alga, Chaetocladus gracilis, from the upper Silurian of Skåne (Scania), southernmost Sweden, was erected. The original description was based on a single incomplete fossil recovered from the abandoned limestone quarry at Bjärsjölagård, a classic geologic locality in Scania. Here we present four a...

The Silurian was a time of major climatic transition punctuated by multiple biotic crises and global carbon cycle perturbations. The most severe of these biotic events was the late Silurian (Ludfordian) Lau/Kozlowskii extinction event (LKE) and the associated Lau carbon isotope excursion (CIE). Although the extinction event and Lau CIE are globally...

The Ordovician Period has emerged as a highly dynamic time in Earth history. Comprehensive work on chrono-, chemo- and biostratigraphy has resulted in an overall well-constrained systemic framework, but several local successions around the globe still await detailed analysis in many respects. Herein we perform a high-resolution analysis of abiotic...

The following is a list of literature pertaining (broadly) to the ‘orthoceratite limestone’ of Sweden and coeval strata of the surrounding geographic region. This list forms a ‘living document’ that will be continually updated, and is by no means claimed to be complete. Many of the older publications can be found for free at PaleoArchive (www.paleo...

With advances in data acquisition and processing methods, spectral inversion of time domain induced polarization (IP) data is becoming more common. Geological interpretation of inverted spectral parameters, for instance Cole-Cole parameters, often relies on results from systematic laboratory measurements. These are most often carried out with frequ...

With advances in data acquisition and processing methods, spectral inversion of time domain induced polarization (IP) data is becoming more common. Geological interpretation of inverted spectral parameters, for instance Cole-Cole parameters, often relies on results from systematic laboratory measurements. These are most often carried out with frequ...

A total of 462 coprolites from three localities exposing Upper Cretaceous deposits in the Münster Basin, northwestern Germany, have been subjected to an array of analytical techniques, with the aim of elucidating ancient trophic structures and predator-prey interactions. The phosphatic composition, frequent bone inclusions, size and morphology coll...

The Homerian Stage (upper Wenlock) of the Silurian has become associated with a rapid succession of extinction events that affected both planktic and (nekto)benthic organisms (the ‘Big Crisis’, ‘lundgreni Event’, ‘Mulde Event’). This mid-Silurian extinction interval coincides globally with a distinct positive carbon isotope excursion (CIE) and shif...

The recently published Lethaia paper by Bergström et al. (https://doi.org/10.1111/let.12269) on the age of the Ordovician Winneshiek Shale (Iowa, USA), and the impact that formed the Decorah crater which hosts this rock unit, is an interesting scientific contribution, although there are a number of problems with the interpretations and data present...

As carbonate sediments are strongly influenced by syndepositional conditions, carbonate rocks form an invaluable source of paleoenvironmental information. Analyses of late Cambrian (Furongian) to Middle Ordovician cool-water carbonates from the Baltoscandian paleobasin typically reveal consistent overall stratigraphic patterns and trends in microfa...

A high‐resolution chemostratigraphical (coupled δ13Ccarb and δ18Ocarb) study of the topmost Floian through the middle Darriwilian (Ordovician) succession at the Hällekis quarry, Kinnekulle, southern Sweden, shows relatively steady isotopic values with overall minor changes, although some notable short‐ and long‐term shifts are discernible. A pronou...

The classification of acritarchs remains a major problem concerning the study of this group, which is considered as representing a major part of the organic-walled phytoplankton of the Palaeozoic. It can be assumed that a large part of the taxa described in literature are not real biological entities but rather represent different (eco-) phenotypes...

In Scandinavia, the boundary between provisional Cambrian Stage 4 and the Wuliuan Stage is marked by a prominent unconformity ascribed to non-deposition and erosion during a eustatic sea-level fall that may partially correlate with the regressive ’Hawke Bay Event’. Wuliuan strata are widely distributed in Scandinavia, but exposures are relatively f...

The Grönhögen-2015 core drilling on southern Öland, Sweden, penetrated 50.15 m of Cambrian Series 3, Furongian and Lower–Middle Ordovician strata. The Cambrian succession includes the Äleklinta Member (upper Stage 5) of the Borgholm Formation and the Alum Shale Formation (Guzhangian–Tremadocian). Agnostoids and trilobites allowed subdivision of the...

A ca 20 m thick succession of upper Furongian (Cambrian Stage 10) through Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) strata exposed at Lanna, in the province of Närke, south-central Sweden, is described. The upper Furongian is represented by the Alum Shale Formation and reflects an overall shallowing trend that ultimately resulted in emergence above sea level...

The Komstad Limestone forms a distal part of the widespread ‘orthoceratite limestone’ of the Baltoscandian continent. In this paper, we present an integrated conodont biostratigraphy and carbon isotope stratigraphy for a major part of this formation and address its significance for evaluating Middle Ordovician correlation and overall stratigraphy....

The Middle Ordovician (Dapingian–middle Darriwilian) "orthoceratite limestone" is documented in its traditional type area at Kinnekulle in the province of Västergötland in southern Sweden. Detailed field studies combined with systematic qualitative and quantitative analyses of carbonate microfacies at high stratigraphic resolution show that this su...

The Baltoscandian region forms part of the paleocontinent Baltica, which was largely covered by a shallow epeiric sea throughout much of the Ordovician (c. 485.5–444 Ma). This ancient sea is today recorded by a thin succession of sedimentary rocks. During the Early–Middle Ordovician (c. 485.5–457.5 Ma), Baltica was situated in mid-latitudes on the...

The catastrophic disruption of the L chondrite parent body in the asteroid belt c. 470 Ma initiated a prolonged meteorite bombardment of Earth that started in the Ordovician and continues today. Abundant L chondrite meteorites in Middle Ordovician strata have been interpreted to be the consequence of the asteroid breakup event. Here we report a zir...

Characterization of varying bedrock properties is a common need in various contexts, ranging from large infrastructure pre-investigations to environmental protection. A direct current resistivity and time domain induced polarization (IP) survey aiming to characterize properties of a Cretaceous limestone was carried out in the Kristianstad basin, Sw...

The record of scolecodonts (polychaete jaws) from the Ordovician of Sweden is very poor. In this paper, we document a Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) assemblage recovered from palynological samples from the ?orthoceratite limestone? (Lanna and Holen limestones) of Mount Kinnekulle, Västergötland, southern Sweden. The collection of diminutive specim...

The Tomten-1 drilling at Torbjörntorp in Västergötland, southern Sweden, penetrated 29.85 m of Cambrian Series 2, Cambrian Series 3, Furongian, and Lower–Middle Ordovician strata. Lithostratigraphically, the succession includes the File Haidar, Borgholm and Alum Shale formations, and the Latorp and Lanna limestones. The drill core succession is des...

Sub-millimetre-sized phosphatic spherules are often found in acetic acid-insoluble residues produced for microfossil extraction. As they are typically associated with conodont elements and have a similar chemical composition, they are informally known as ‘conodont pearls’. Still, the origin of these micro-spherules has been controversial, and autho...

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) was the most rapid and sustained increase in marine Phanerozoic biodiversity. What generated this biotic response across Palaeozoic seascapes is a matter of debate; several intrinsic and extrinsic drivers have been suggested. One is Ordovician climate, which in recent years has undergone a paradi...

Synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) was used to virtually dissect and peel the shields off of the microscopic, bivalved phosphatocopine crustaceans in the Cambrian ‘Orsten’ type of preservation of Sweden. Doing so opened up for an array of concealed internal structures to be observed in a fully enclosed specimen of Hesslandon...

Except for the scattered cephalopod conchs that have given the rock type its name, mollusk fossils are relatively rare in the Middle Ordovician ‘orthoceratite limestone’ of Sweden. However, an interval in the Darriwilian stands out as being unusually rich in various types of mollusks. Throughout southern Sweden, gastropods became relatively abundan...

The transition between the Volkhov and Kunda Baltoscandian stages (Darriwilian, Middle Ordovician) is associated with a notable sea-level fall. This study documents the lithologic and sedimentologic expression of this event in the “orthoceratite limestone” at the Hällekis quarry, Kinnekulle, Sweden. The uppermost Volkhov strata are characterized by...

We measured the He and Ne concentrations of 50 individual extraterrestrial chromite grains recovered from mid-Ordovician (lower Darriwilian) sediments from the Lynna River section near St. Petersburg, Russia. High concentrations of solar wind-like He and Ne found in most grains indicate that they were delivered to Earth as micrometeoritic dust, whi...

Well-developed oncoids and centimetre-sized stromatolites are reported for the first time from the Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) cool-water ‘orthoceratite limestone’ at Kinnekulle, Västergötland, Sweden. The characteristics and stratigraphical distribution of these microbialites show an apparent relationship to fluctuations in relative sea level....

The abstracts within this volume were presented at the 3rd IGCP 591 Annual Meeting, which was held in Lund, Sweden, in June 2013. This meeting was co-arranged with the International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy (ISCS), the International Subcommission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (ISOS) and the International Subcommission on Silurian Stratig...

Chromite grains from Ordovician rocks are identified as fossil micrometeorites containing solar wind gases and having been exposed to GCR+SCR for 0.17 to 13 Ma.

Numerous fossil meteorites and high concentrations of sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial chromite (EC) grains with ordinary chondritic composition have previously been documented from 467 ± 1.6 Ma Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) strata. These finds probably reflect a temporarily enhanced influx of L-chondritic matter, following the disruption of t...

Enclosed in the Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) part of the reddish ‘orthoceratite limestone’ of Baltoscandia is a conspicuous c. 1.5 m thick unit colloquially known as the ‘Täljsten’ interval. It has a wide geographical distribution in the Baltoscandian paleocontinent but is particularly well exposed in south-central Sweden. The unit is characteri...