Stratigraphy and hystricurid trilobites of the Christian Elv Formation (Lower Ordovician) of western North Greenland

Abstract

The Christian Elv Formation (Early Ordovician) of Daugaard-Jensen Land, western North Greenland, is formally proposed and recognised from southern Hall Land, in the east, to western Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Islands, to the west. The formation in its type section includes a shallow water trilobite fauna suggesting a mid-Tremadoc age; conodonts indicate the Rossodus manitouensis Zone af the North American Midcontinent Realm. Two species af hystricurid trilobites are present, of which one, Hystricurus scrofulosus, is dcscribed as a new species. The distribution of Hystricurus followed the early Ordovician palaeo-equator and was not confined by palaeocontinental boundaries. Paraplethopeltis is considered to be a subgcnus af Hystricurus.