Ostracode fauna, stratigraphy and definition of the Beyrichienkalk sequence

An essential clue to the uppermost Silurian in the submarine Baltic arca is the Beyrichienkalk. According to recent investigations it constitutes a glacial drift boulder sequence characterized by four ostracode associations with about sixty species. In the correlation of ostracode zones of Baltoscandia these associations form a connecting link and thus are also of biozonal character. In the terms of regional stratigraphic units (East Baltic arca). the lower stratigraphic boundary of this sequence lies approximately at the beginning of the Kuressaare beds and the top in the upper Ohesaare beds. The term Beyrichienkalk should be used for those glacial erratics that are characterized by typical ostracodes of the four associations defined here.