Abstract Ordovician strata in Greenland are extensively exposed in North Greenland and northern East Greenland; additional small traces (loose blocks) are recorded from the craton of West Greenland. The western North Greenland succession is nearly identical to that of the Franklinian Basin exposed on Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada; the eastern North Greenland represents the (present) northeastern corner of Laurentia and provides the connection to the East Greenland Caledonian platform. The northern East Greenland succession is the natural northern extension of the Caledonian platform of northern Europe and the Appalachian platform of eastern North America. During the Ordovician Greenland occupied a palaeogeographical subtropical to tropical position with a faunal assemblage typical of Laurentia. A prominent faunal peak of diversification occurred in the Late Ordovician. The stratigraphical succession of Greenland is summarized and age relationships are discussed with reference to the fossil faunas and breaks in the successions and correlation between the locations and regions are provided.

Abstract The Mesozoic biotas of Scandinavia have been studied for nearly two centuries. However, the last 15 years have witnessed an explosive advance in research, most notably on the richly fossiliferous Triassic (Olenekian–Carnian) and Jurassic (Tithonian) Lagerstätten of the Norwegian Arctic Svalbard archipelago, Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Kristianstad Basin and Vomb Trough of Skåne in southern Sweden, and the UNESCO heritage site at Stevns Klint in Denmark – the latter constituting one of the most complete Cretaceous–Palaeogene (Maastrichtian–Danian) boundary sections known globally. Other internationally significant deposits include earliest (Induan) and latest Triassic (Norian–Rhaetian) strata from the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, and the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian) to Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) rocks of southern Sweden and the Danish Baltic island of Bornholm, respectively. Marine palaeocommunities are especially well documented, and comprise prolific benthic macroinvertebrates, together with pelagic cephalopods, chondrichthyans, actinopterygians and aquatic amniotes (ichthyopterygians, sauropterygians and mosasauroids). Terrestrial plant remains (lycophytes, sphenophytes, ferns, pteridosperms, cycadophytes, bennettitaleans and ginkgoes), including exceptionally well-preserved carbonized flowers, are also world famous, and are occasionally associated with faunal traces such as temnospondyl amphibian bones and dinosaurian footprints. While this collective documented record is substantial, much still awaits discovery. Thus, Scandinavia and its Arctic territories represent some of the most exciting prospects for future insights into the spectacular history of Mesozoic life and environments.

Abstract Rodinia break-up with late Ediacaran rifting defined a NE Laurentia triple junction (New York Promontory–Ottawa–Bonnechere aulacogen (OBA)–Quebec Reentrant). Rifting persisted to c. 510 Ma. The oldest passive-margin shelf units (Forestdale Marble and Moosalamoo Phyllite) underlie a sandstone (Cheshire) commonly regarded as the oldest passive unit. Late Dyeran–Middle Cambrian rifting led to the oldest OBa sedimentation and formed the Franklin Basin (NW Vermont). Cambrian–Darriwillian shelf–slope facies are linked eustatically – not Taconic Orogeny onset. Onlap and shelf carbonates are coeval with black slope mud; and lowstand shelf unconformities with green, oxic slope mud. Early–middle Dyeran eustatic change defined slope units: (1) Browns Pond Formation dysoxic–anoxic (d–a) interval with debrite cap (Holcombville Member, new); (2) Middle Granville Formation Oxic Interval (new); and (3) lower Hatch Hill Formation d–a interval. Our analysis leads to two controversial conclusions: (i) the existence of the Dashwoods and other micro-continental blocks due to hyperextension is not supported by cover sequences linking Laurentia to proposed Dashwoods areas (i.e. Green Mountains) and an arc origin of the type Dashwoods; and (ii) ‘Hawke Bay Event(s)’, widely interpreted as Cambrian global regressive event(s), is a local highstand systems tract facies with shelf sand bypass onto the Hatch Hill Formation slope in its NE Laurentia type region.