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The Spanish Courel Mountains UNESCO Global Geopark has strong educational and touristic resources despite limited preservation of Paleozoic invertebrate fossil assemblages within metamorphic rocks. The paleontological sites are managed by means of their inventory and integration in a Geographical Information System, the construction of virtual 3D fossil models, the creation of a fossil collection exhibition, the transport of large boulders with fossils to places such as tourist offices, and hiking trails to see ichnofossils. To enable geoconservation, the Palaeozoic paleontological sites are neither promoted nor frequently visited. Fossils found in the Geopark by paleontologists and fortuitously by local people or hikers are deposited and safeguarded in the Geological Museum and are available for eventual exhibition and paleontological studies.

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More than 30 species of tergomyan, gastropod, bivalve and cephalopod molluscs are described from the Late Ordovician of central and eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco. For the cephalopods this represents the first systematically known taxa of the region. Tergomyans and gastropods are most common in the more shaly part of the Lower Ktaoua Formation, while bivalves are more frequent in the sandy part of the Lower Second Bani Formation. A southern Gondwana aspect is evident for the tergomyan, gastropod and bivalve assemblages, sharing many taxa with Bohemia, while no clear signal is present for the cephalopods. The latter reflects insufficient knowledge of the fauna of large parts of these areas. The widely recognized Holopea? antiquata is transferred to the genus Radvanospira gen. nov.; other new gastropod taxa include Allossospira gen. nov., Tritonophon grandis sp. nov., Radvanospira baniensis sp. nov. and Lophospira latilabra sp. nov. Most of the diverse bivalve fauna and the few cephalopods are left in open nomenclature but new taxa include the bivalve Praenucula pojetai sp. nov. and the cephalopods Wadema tattai sp. nov. and Tafadnatoceras tiouririnense gen. et. sp. nov. The Late Ordovician bivalves from Morocco are dominated by pteriomorphs and protobranchs, inhabiting infaunal, semi-infaunal and epifaunal niches.

The Palaeozoic succession of the Sierra Norte de Sevilla UNESCO Global Geopark (Ossa Morena Zone of the Iberian Massif, SW Spain) includes a nearly complete Silurian succession, ca. 150 m in thickness, deposited in outer shelf settings. Among sections explored along the western end of the El Pintado reservoir, in the core part of the Valle syncline, the El Pintado-1 section exhibits graptolite rich Silurian black-shale facies ranging from the base of the Rhuddanian to the upper Ludfordian. Most of the standard graptolite biozones of the Silurian System have been identified in this succession, and high-resolution biostratigraphical studies have led to the unanimous candidacy of this section as replacement GSSP for the base of the Telychian Stage by the International Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy. The preliminary record of Llandovery graptolites in the lower part of the succession so far comprises more than 200 species, 19 of them new. Graptolites from the upper Telychian and from the remaining part of the Silurian succession have not yet been studied in detail. The condensed, almost entirely graptolitic black shale Silurian succession of the El Pintado-1 geosite is of enormous value for the world’s palaeontological heritage, reinforced by the future placement here of the GSSP for the base of the Telychian Stage. Due to its fragility and exclusively scientific nature, the section is not open to public visitors of the Geopark, and its difficult accessibility also adds some protection to this internationally important geosite, favouring its conservation beyond the regional legislative framework.

The giant Ordovician trilobites from the Canelas quarry constitute the most iconic sign of identity of the Arouca UNESCO Global Geopark at an international level. Palaeontological studies determined the importance of this fossil locality for studying aspects of the social behavior of these marine arthropods and their interactions with other represented invertebrate fossil groups. Although part of the famous ‘gigantism’ of the fossils represented in the slate quarry is due to tectonic expansion, which is responsible for one-third of the outstanding size of the fossils, there is no doubt that this locality, sometimes considered as a fossil lagerstätte, has a great scientific interest and represents a unique international reference among the geological heritage of Portugal. The construction of an on-site museum and the establishment of a geotrail around the quarry have turned this geosite into an example of cooperation between extractive industry, education, science and sustainable development. The formal partnership established with the AGA – Arouca Geopark Association reinforces the projection of this geosite, allowing its disclosure in exhibitions and educational programs, as well as the collaboration with the scientific community., Departamento de Geologia, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal, Centro de Geociências, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Instituto de Geociencias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, España, Instituto de Geociencias, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España, Área de Paleontología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España

The Anti-Atlas contains a thick, volcanic-free Ordovician succession that originally deposited in a passive-margin basin. Three main sedimentary packages are bounded by major unconformities: (i) the Tremadocian–Floian Lower Fezouata and Upper Fezouata formations, which unconformably overlie a palaeorelief of Cambrian rifting volcanosedimentary complexes, and are subsequently topped by a Dapingian para-conformable gap; (ii) the Darriwilian–Katian Tachilla Formation and First Bani and Ktaoua groups, the latter unconformably overlain by a Hirnantian glaciogenic succession; and (iii) the Second Bani Group, which subsequently infilled the former glaciogenic palaeorelief. Due to the scarcity of carbonate interbeds for etching analyses, leading to rare references of conodonts, the global Ordovician chart is interpolated on the basis of microphytoplancton (acritarchs and chitinozoans), regional graptolites and brachiopods. The Ordovician counter-clockwise rotation of Gondwana led its Moroccan margin from mid-to high-latitude positions, leading to the onset of a siliciclastic, wave-and storm-dominated platform. Flooding surfaces are marked by shelly silty carbonate interbeds that reflect the episodic development of echinoderm–bryozoan meadows during Katian times; in areas protected from siliciclastic input, they reached massive and bedded bioaccumulations (Khabt-el-Hajar Formation). The Hirnantian glaciation controlled the incision of numerous tunnel channels, infilled with both alluvial to fluvial sediments and glaciomarine diamictites. The Hirnantian palaeorelief was definitively sealed during Silurian times., The authors thanks the useful and detailed revisions made by J. Colmenar, T. Servais and one 661 anonymous referee. This work is dedicated to the memory of Jacques Destombes who left us 662 during the redaction of this synthesis.This paper is a contribution to Spanish project CGL2017-663 19 87631-P from Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and IGCP 653 (IUGS-664 UNESCO) project ‘The Onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event’.

Trabajo presentado en el 5th International Palaeontological Congress, celebrado en París (Francia) del 9 al 13 de julio de 2018, The Fezouata Shale has yielded remarkably diverse assemblages of non-biomineralizing and biomineralizing organisms of Early Ordovician age. Overall, some 160 genera have been documented, about a quarter of which are essentially soft-bodied. Exceptional preservation in the Fezouata Shale occurs in two main separated intervals, of late Tremadocian and mid-Floian age respectively. These intervals are best regarded as distinct Konservat-lagerstätten, since they contain different faunas and are separated in time by c. 9 Ma. Both assemblages are dominated by arthropods, including a diverse trilobite fauna (c. 25 genera). Here we report the discovery of fossilized appendages and guts in 31 trilobite specimens from the lower Fezouata Konservat-lagerstätte belonging to the genera Anacheirurus, Bavarilla, and Prionocheilus (Order Phacopida). The preservation of appendages is generally poor, especially for their proximal parts covered by the dorsal exoskeleton. However, when appendages project from below the dorsal carapace, they exhibit delicate structures, such as annuli boundaries and lateral spines of antennae, or podomere boundaries, clustered endites and terminal claws of endopods. Lamellate exopods are rarely preserved, and when they are, their morphologies are largely obscured by the dorsal carapace. Appendages are typically preserved as thin, yellowish films of iron oxides, interpreted as oxidized pyrite. Among preserved gut structures, Anacheirurus displays a parallel-sided, sediment-filled digestive tract, running under the entire trunk axis while the tract of Bavarilla (wide and sediment-filled) is associated with 10 pairs of digestive glands, which are atypically preserved as a sediment infill. The new examples of fossilized ‘soft’-parts of trilobites from the lower Fezouata Lagerstätte complement previous observations in Megistaspis and Symphysurus, two taxa also belonging to the pilekiid-bavarillid biofacies typical of lower shoreface settings. Despite notable differences in size and affinities, the preservational styles are essentially the same in all specimens, suggesting that only a limited number of taphonomic pathways is responsible for the preservation of trilobite labile parts in these horizons. In addition to the work on the preserved soft parts, the morphological variability of preserved hard parts is currently also under study; in time, this will result in detailed systematic (re)descriptions of the taxa at hand.

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pp. 147–160 Late Floian conodonts are recorded from a thin limestone lens intercalated in the lower part of the San Jose Formation at the Carcel Puncco section (Inambari River), Eastern Cordillera of Peru. The conodont association includes Gothodus costulatus LINDSTROM, Protopanderodus rectus (LINDSTROM), Drepanoistodus basiovalis (SERGEEVA), Drepanoistodus forceps (LINDSTROM), Drepanodus arcuatus PANDER, Trapezognathus diprion (LINDSTROM), Erraticodon patu COOPER, and Ansella cf. jemdandica (LOFGREN). This species association can be assigned to the upper part of the well-documented Oepikodus evae Zone. It is the northernmost conodont record of late Floian age in South America. This study updates the preliminary data presented in 2001 from this fossil locality, and it has important consequences for the paleogeographic reconstruction of the Peruvian part of the Central Andean Basin. In accordance with trilobites and brachiopods documented for the same strata, the conodont association represents a relatively cold-shallow-water platform environment. The record of late Floian conodonts towards the middle part of the San Jose Formation shows that the base of this unit in the studied section is considerably older than other sections of the distribution area, where its lowermost part is dated as early Darriwilian by the record of graptolites from the Undulograptus austrodentatus graptolite Zone. The diachronous initiation of the marine sedimentation makes the lower part of the Carcel Puncco shales penecontemporaneous with the volcanigenic rocks related with the Arequipa Massif, which transitionally underlie the San Jose Formation in other places of the Altiplano and the Eastern Cordillera of Peru.

The Iberian Peninsula is home to the most extensive outcrops of Ordovician and Silurian rocks in Europe, being mainly located in the Variscan Iberian Massif of Spain and Portugal. Many of these outcrops are outstanding in terms of their geomorphological value and impressive landscape, but also because of the palaeontological record they hold or their exceptional stratigraphic record of certain Ordovician and Silurian successions. The present work proposes 23 sites that typify the rich Iberian geological and palaeontological heritage of these periods, all of them located in natural areas protected by national or regional laws (National and Natural Parks, European Geoparks, Natural Monuments, National Hunting Reserves, or municipal reservations). Selected geosites add value for these natural areas and are chosen in order to disseminate knowledge of the existence of rocks and fossils with examples that are key to interpreting Gondwanan palaeogeography and the regional palaeoenvironmental conditions (cold peri-polar seas with marine platforms bathing a gigantic deserted continent), physical events of local and global nature (eustatism, tectonic events, volcanism), paleobiodiversity, and evolution. The potential of the Iberian Ordovician and Silurian rocks and fossils as a geotouristic and educational resource require the preparation of fixed information panels, on-site museums, geological viewpoints, georoutes, guided visits, and tourist information guides and pamphlets, which are currently being arranged or already established. The effective use of these 23 Ordovician and Silurian geosites can benefit from the protection afforded to the natural areas in which they are located. This work was performed as part of the PATRIORSI project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (CGL2006-07628/BTE, years 2006-2009) and the Geology and Palaeontology of the Cabañeros National Park project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment (Ref. 56/2006, 2006-2009).

Deep in the memory of the inhabitants of the region of Montesinho (NE Portugal), there is a legend which talks about the existence of enigmatic pedras escrevidas (="written stones") in the mountains near the village of Guadramil. In the first half of the 20th Century, what used to be considered some kind of rock engravings in quartzite, were studied by archaeologists, which interpreted these signs as a kind of very old (and unknown) pre-Roman writing. A modern geological mapping of the area of the Montesinho Natural Park allowed us to rediscover the original sites of these structures and interpret them as ichnofossils. They occur on the Lower Ordovician quartzites, towards the top of the lower member of the Marao Formation (Floian), which crops out extensively in the area, generating the mountainous relief of the Barreiras Brancas-La Culebra sierra. The study of the locality required two excavating campaigns, supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, which involved 40 highschool students during the summer of 2002 and 2003 in an area located 5 km north of Guadramil and very close to the Spanish border. It resulted in the exposure and cleaning of an exceptional surface of 40 square meters with a very vast ichnofossil accumulation, reaching a maximum of 2,000 individual specimens by square metre. All of them correspond to horizontal sections of conical structures created by the spiral displacement of steeply inclined J-shaped burrows, assigned to the arthrophycid forms Daedalus halli (Rouault) and Daedalus labechei (Rouault). Both ichnotaxa are widely known in the "Armorican Quartzite" facies of the Lower Ordovician of SW Europe, where massive occurrences reflect opportunistic colonization events on storm generated sandstones. The spectacular bedding plane concentration of these conical burrows in the locality, and the good preservation of the active backfill on their typical spreite (wing-like) structure, is currently being mapped with the purpose of determining the mathematical model underlying the burrowing pattern and ecospace interaction between the sedimentivorous producers. Anyway, this outstanding palaeontological site of the "pedras escrevidas" has no other counterpart in the world, and is of undisputable value for the Iberian geological heritage. In the near future the locality will be protected and included in the touristic programmes and guides enhancing the natural heritage of the Montesinho Natural Park. The detailed ichnological study of this outcrop is being financed through the PATRIORSI project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (CGL2006-07628/BTE, years 2006-2009) and by the project "Identification, Characterization and Conservation of Geological Heritage: a Geoconservation strategy for Portugal", sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (PTDC/CTEGEX/ 64966/2006, years 2006-2009).

[ES] La revisión completa de más de un centenar de localidades fosilíferas del Ordovícico Medio situadas en el noroeste del Macizo Hespérico, muestra que el depósito de las pizarras y limolitas oscuras (Formación Luarca y equivalentes), que siguen a las cuarcitas del Arenig, no fue tan uniforme como se consideraba hasta ahora. Las pizarras se sedimentaron esencialmente durante el Oretaniense en la Zona Asturoccidental-Leonesa y en la parte septentrional de la Zona Centroibérica (Dominio del Ollo de Sapo), donde el techo de la unidad se sitúa muy próximo al límite Oretaniense / Dobrotiviense, sin existir ningún yacimiento paleontológico de probada edad dobrotiviense (= "Llandeilo inferior" en sentido clásico). En la Zona Cantábrica, la sedimentación arcillosa se inicia en el Oretaniense superior tardío y prosigue durante el Dobrotiviense. Para el conjunto del área estudiada se caracterizan, o proponen, diversas lagunas estratigráficas de alcance local o regional, y se discuten las circunstancias paleogeográficas generadas por las hipótesis más recientes, que son contrastadas a la luz de los nuevos datos paleoecológicos y paleobiogeográficos. Éstos indican que la sedimentación tuvo lugar en áreas externas y abiertas de la plataforma, relativamente más profundas que en la región surcentroibérica, con áreas de surco donde ingresan elementos mesopelágicos. Desde el punto de vista paleontológico, se reconocieron un total de 97 formas distintas (67 especies presentes en el Oretaniense y 45 en el Dobrotiviense), entre las que destaca la primera aparición conocida de determinadas especies de trilobites y ostrácodos, el registro más moderno de otros, y algunos taxones en común con Avalonia y Baltica, desconocidos hasta el presente en otras áreas del suroeste de Europa, [EN] A complete review of more than one hundred Middle Ordovician fossil localities, distributed within the north western part of the Hesperian Massif, shows that the sedimentation of the dark shales (Luarca Fo rmation and equivalents) that overlie Arenig quartzites with Cruziana (the 'Armorican Quartzite' facies) was not as uniform as it has been supposed for the whole NW Spain. These shales were mainly deposited during the Oretanian in the West Asturian-Leonese Zone and in nort h e rn Central-Iberian Zone (Domain of the Ollo de Sapo Antiform). In these zones, the top of the unit is close to the Oretanian/Dobrotivian boundary, without any fossils with proved Dobrotivian age., Este trabajo ha sido financiado con cargo al Proyecto PB94-1330 de la DGESEIC ["Investigaciones estratigráficas y paleontológicas en las formaciones Luarca y Sueve (Ordovícico Inferior y Medio de Asturias y León)]", y constituye una contribución a los proyectos nº 410 del PICG (IUGS-UNESCO)e "Iberia" de EURO P ROBE (European Science Foundation). La participación de J.C. Gutiérrez-Marco y de I. Rábano se inscribe igualmente en el Proyecto PB96-0839 (Bioestratigrafía de alta resolución y litorradiometría en el Ordovícico Medio-Silúrico de España) de la DGESEIC (Ministerio de Educación y Cultura). La investigación museográfica en colecciones antiguas, forma parte del Proyecto 06/0006/98 ("Investigación y catalogación de colecciones paleontológicas singulares del Museo Geominero"), financiado por la Comunidad de Madrid.

Se presenta el hallazgo de un bellerofóntido del Ordovicico medio de los Montes de Toledo (Zona Centroibérica), que presenta diversos depósitos secundarios en la superficie externa de la concha, interpretados como perinductura, inductura y coinductura. Tales depósitos se consideraban característicos de ciertos gasterópodos devónico-pérmicos (Euphemitidae), por lo que su primer registro entre los sinuítidos ordovícicos plantea unas relaciones hlogenéticas inéditas con un modo de secreción similar en ambos grupos y, secundariamente, ello representa un nuevo argumento en favor de la clasificación de los Sinuitidae entre los gasterópodos

Se presenta el hallazgo de un bellerofóntido del Ordovicico medio de los Montes de Toledo (Zona Centroibérica), que presenta diversos depósitos secundarios en la superficie externa de la concha, interpretados como perinductura, inductura y coinductura. Tales depósitos se consideraban característicos de ciertos gasterópodos devónico-pérmicos (Euphemitidae), por lo que su primer registro entre los sinuítidos ordovícicos plantea unas relaciones hlogenéticas inéditas con un modo de secreción similar en ambos grupos y, secundariamente, ello representa un nuevo argumento en favor de la clasificación de los Sinuitidae entre los gasterópodos