Volkhov Stage - Limbata Limestone

For many years I have been working on the stratigraphy and the trilobite faunas of the Limbata Limestone, a large and hitherto neglected subdivision of the Arenigian limestones of Sweden. The main investigation has been carried out at Lanna, in the South Central part of the Swedish mainland. In the autumn of 1970, I delivered a short manuscript to the “Trìlobite News”, edited by Dr. D. L. Bruton of Oslo, and Dr. V Jaanusson(?) of Stockholm. Without consulting me, my use of the British stratigraphical scheme and of a time-honoured Swedish subdivision, introduced by Moberg, was rejected by the editor. The title of a forth-coming paper of mine: “The Arenigian Limbata Limestone of Sweden” was changed for the East Baltic denomination: “Volkhov Stage (“Limbata” Limestone)”, a concept launched and promoted by Jaanusson. The aim of the present paper is to show that this switching of stratigraphical terms is a result of the editor's ignorance of the stratigraphy of the Swedish strata. Jaanusson's classification can possibly be used for the very small area of the northern part of the island of Öland, but not for the vast mainland of Sweden. The limestones of the latter contain a trilobite fauna which is of Norwegian, and not of East Baltic type. A conspicuous feature is the different vertical distribution in Sweden and the East Baltic district of the species belonging to the subgenus Megistaspis (Megistaspis) Jaanusson, 1956.