The Skyberg Lagerstätte from the Mjøsa area, Norway: a rare window into the late early Cambrian biodiversity of Scandinavia

The Skyberg Biota is a new early Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätte, documented from a 7.5-m-thick succession of the Skyberg Member, Ringstranda Formation, in the classical Mjøsa area of Norway. It displays a high species diversity and contains: algae; sponges; brachiopods; hyoliths; bivalved arthropods; trilobites; palaeoscolecids and other vermiform organisms; weakly sclerotized fragments of unknown affinity; several tubicolous fossils; the enigmatic genus Lapworthella; and a number of additional problematica together with infrequent trace fossils consisting of burrows and faecal pellets. This novel macro-biota encloses the most diverse fossil assemblage known from the Cambrian Series 2 locally in the Mjøsa area, and regionally in Baltoscandia, and currently includes around 50 species of 10 major animal groups and macro-algae. The Skyberg Biota contains taxa previously unknown from Norway, several are new to Baltoscandia and also includes a range of new species. The Skyberg biota offers a rare glimpse into the biodiversity of Baltoscandia just prior to the large faunal turnover at the late–middle Cambrian transition.