265 by Stig M. Bergström1, Anita Löfgren2, and Jörg Maletz3 The GSSP of the Second (Upper) Stage of the Lower Ordovician Series: Diabasbrottet at Hunneberg, Province of Västergötland, Southwestern Sweden 1 Department of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, 155 S. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.(
[email protected]) 2 Department of Geology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-22362 Lund, Sweden. 3 Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Box 603050, Buffalo, NY 14260—3050, USA. Diabasbrottet, selected by the International Subcom- ‘Upper’ Ordovician have had a rather different scope in different misson on Ordovician Stratigraphy and in 2002 ratified parts of the world as was recognized by Jaanusson (1960) almost half a century ago. This has led to confusion among non-stratigra- by the International Commission on Stratigraphy as the phers concerned about historical paleogeography and palebiogeog- GSSP of the Second (Upper) Stage of the Lower Ordovi- raphy, fossil evolution and fossil diversity trends through time, pale- cian, is located on the Hunneberg Mountain in south- oceanographic evolution and other such matters where precise time relations are of critical importance. western Sweden. The stratigraphic succession repre- In an effort to establish a globally applicable Ordovician sents an outer shelf environment near the Baltic Shield chronostratigraphy, various working groups of the ISOS have inves- margin. The shale-dominated, biostratigraphically tigated biostratigraphic horizons that appeared to have potential for reliable international correlations. This work resulted in the recogni- complete, richly fossiliferous boundary interval is com- tion of six levels (Figure 1) that seemed to have particular promise as pletely exposed in a disused quarry.