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In considering the tectonic evolution of the Acadian orogen in New England and Maritime Canada, account should be taken of the fact that from the Early Cambrian through the Mississippian the Coastal Acadia marine faunas of eastern North America are very distinctive biogeographically from those occurring to the west and northwest within the Northern Appalachians and adjacent parts of the continent. The limited amount of boundary mixing can be largely ascribed to dispersible larval stages of a few taxa. This biogeographic situation suggests that the surface-current circulation pattern that maintained this type of reproductive isolation and biogeographic integrity from the Early Cambrian through the Mississippian implies a certain level of geographic remoteness as well, although specific distances cannot be derived from such data. Paleogeographies and plate tectonic concepts need to be consistent with the available biogeographic information. Early-through-Late Cambrian biogeographic units have been recognized, since early in this century, in the Acadian orogen and adjacent regions. Baltic Realm (= Atlantic Realm, = Acado-Baltic Realm) faunas are restricted to the coastal regions of New England (Boston region), the Maritimes (St. John, New Brunswick), Nova Scotia, and eastern Newfoundland. On the other hand, Laurentian Realm (= Pacific Realm) faunas are restricted to a belt that extends from western Newfoundland down the valley of the St. Lawrence River and through Vermont and eastern New York. Ordovician biogeography is less well documented, with earliest Ordovician (Tremadocian) Baltic Realm-type faunas also occurring in eastern Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Coastal Acadia, whereas on the North American Platform to the west, Laurentian Realm-type faunas occur. Baltic Realm faunas of the later Early Ordovician (Arenigian) are known in eastern Newfoundland. In central Newfoundland, the few shelly faunas are largely of the Laurentian Realm. There is no useful Middle to Upper Ordovician (upper Arenigian-Ashgillian) fauna from Coastal Acadia, whereas fauna of that age-span on the northwestern edge of the Northern Appalachians is strictly Laurentian Realm in character. During this time interval in central Newfoundland, central and northern New Brunswick, and northern Maine, the few shelly faunas presently available are largely of the Laurentian Realm, with a Baltic admixture in some cases, although more study is required for a definitive statement on this matter. In the latest Ashgillian (Hirnantian) there is at least one good occurrence of the globally very extensive cold water, Gondwana (=Malvinokaffric) Realm Hirnantia fauna in eastern Gaspe. Silurian European Province faunas occur in Coastal Acadia, including parts of mainland Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, coastal Maine, and the Boston area. North American Province Silurian occurs farther to the west and northwest, including northern New Brunswick, northern Maine, and the Connecticut River Valley region, as well as in areas farther to the west. Marine Devonian units of Old World Realm type occur in Nova Scotia, coastal Maine, and southern New Brunswick. Eastern Americas Realm faunas, on the other hand, are present to the west and northwest in central and northern New Brunswick, northern Maine, eastern Quebec, and New Hampshire. Mississippian marine European Province faunas are present in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and coastal New Brunswick. By contrast, both North American and Southeastern Province faunas are known well to the west of Greater Acadia in the Southern Appalachians and the Mid-Continent region. Later Paleozoic European and North American nonmarine biota are all of Euramerian Province type; that is, there is no evidence for provincialism within the Northern Appalachians. These biogeographic data are of concern in tectonic analysis, particularly of the Acadian orogen, because belts yielding biogeographically similar organisms are unlikely to have been geographically remote from each other, and vice versa. Examples of boundary biogeographic mixing also indicate greater proximity—such examples are known in a few areas within the Northern Appalachians, particularly in eastern Quebec for the Early and Middle Devonian and in Nova Scotia for the Early Devonian. Early Devonian mixing is also present in northern Maine and adjacent New Brunswick. Boundary biogeographic mixing is also known in central Newfoundland and a few locales to the southwest in northern Maine and New Brunswick for the Middle and later Ordovician. The timing of the Acadian orogeny deduced from datable fossils preserved above and below the post-Acadian unconformity is Middle Devonian, with a Givetian date for the maximum being most likely. This statement applies to all parts of the Northern Appalachians except for Newfoundland, where datable beds overlying Acadian-deformed strata are scarce.

The Ashgillian (Upper Ordovician) Montgomery Limestone occurs as slide blocks in melange of the Shoo Fly Complex, northern Sierra Nevada, northern California. Brachiopods and sphinctozoan sponges from the Montgomery Limestone have closest biogeographic ties to coeval faunas of the eastern Klamath Mountains (Yreka terrane), and in the case of the brachiopods, to east-central Alaska (Jones Ridge). The latter was part of North America in the Ordovician. A small collection of Montgomery rugose corals yielded one species that is known elsewhere only in the Yreka terrane and in northern Maine. Montgomery tabulate corals have affinities with contemporaneous faunas of the Yreka terrane, northern Europe/Asia, Australia, and eastern North America. The apparent absence of similar tabulate taxa in western North America may be an artifact of incomplete collecting. As a whole, the biogeographic data indicate that the Montgomery Limestone was deposited close enough to Ordovician North America for faunal interchange to occur, and during its deposition was probably relatively near that continent. A comparison of lithologic units of the Shoo Fly Complex with those of the Yreka terrane indicates that some units in each area have no counterparts in the other (e.g., schist of Skookum Gulch in the Yreka terrane), and other units have general similarities in age (where known) and lithology, but differ in detail. The Yreka terrane has been interpreted as the remnants of an Early Cambrian arc and Ordovician-Devonian arc–fore-arc–accretionary prism, and the Shoo Fly Complex as a fragment of a Devonian or older accretionary wedge. Available biogeographic and stratigraphic data can be reasonably explained, as has been done by earlier authors, by a paleogeography in which the Yreka terrane and Shoo Fly Complex were parts of the same arc-trench system but were situated at different points along the strike of the arc. Lateral changes along strike in tectonic conditions and source areas could account for the observed disparities.

The eastern Klamath belt contains the fault-bounded Yreka, Trinity, and eastern Klamath terranes. The Yreka terrane comprises Lower Cambrian to Middle Devonian or younger igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The Trinity terrane consists of the Trinity ultramafic-mafic complex of Ordovician to Silurian age and an amphibolitic gabbro unit of Early Cambrian age. The eastern Klamath terrane bears igneous and sedimentary rocks of Early Devonian to Middle Jurassic age. Stratigraphic and intrusive relations imply that the Yreka and Trinity terranes were amalgamated by Early to Middle? Devonian time and that the Trinity terrane was the basement on which the eastern Klamath terrane formed. The lower Paleozoic rocks of the Yreka and eastern Klamath terranes are interpreted to represent the remnants of an Early Cambrian arc overlain by part of an Ordovician to Devonian arc-trench complex that faced west to northwest (present coordinates) in Late Ordovician and Early to Middle Devonian time. The Trinity complex may have formed in a marginal or back-arc basin northeast to southeast of the Lovers Leap–Gregg Ranch portion of the arc in Ordovician to Silurian? time (prior to existence of the eastern Klamath terrane). The biogeographic affinities of eight groups of early Paleozoic fossils, taken as a whole, demonstrate that the eastern Klamath belt was close enough to North America in the Middle Ordovician to Middle Devonian for faunal communication to occur, in some cases at the species level. This evidence and the presence in the belt of some coarse-grained strata possibly derived from a continent indicate that the belt may have been relatively near to North America in Silurian or Devonian time, yet its location is obscure.