Graptolites have been collected from sections through Lower Ordovician strata in northern Iran. At the Saluk Mountains, in the Kopet–Dagh region, mudrocks yielded fragmentary tubaria of Rhabdinopora sp. cf. R. flabelliformis, indicating the presence of lower Tremadocian strata there; stratigraphically, they lie between two limestone beds with the euconodont Cordylodus lindstromi. At Simeh–Kuh in the eastern Alborz Mountains (Semnan Province), upper Tremadocian – lower Floian strata include laminated dark mudstones that contain restricted graptolite faunas, mainly of small declined didymograptids; these are thought to represent incursions of plankton during periods of marine highstands. The lower major flooding surface in Simeh–Kuh coincides with an invasion of the graptolite biofacies and an incursion of Hunnegraptus? sp.; the second major flooding surface is associated with an incursion of Baltograptus geometricus. They were most probably synchronous with those in the lower part of the Hunnegraptus copiosus Biozone and at the base of the Cymatograptus protobalticus Biozone in the of the Tøyen Shale Formation succession of Västergötland, Scandinavia, suggesting that observed characters of sedimentation were eustatically controlled.

The Middle Shale Member of the Amdeh Formation is interpreted to be of Early Ordovician age based on its trace fossils, stratigraphic context and a newly discovered fauna of conodonts. The member abruptly overlies the Lower Quartzite Member, which may be Early Cambrian, and passes gradationally-upward into the Upper Quartzite Member, which is probably Early–Middle Ordovician. The 542.5 m thick Middle Shale Member can be divided into two parts: a shaly lower part, and a sandy upper part that contains an influx of heavy minerals. Bioturbation by marine trace fossils is one of the most obvious characteristics of the member. The shales and sandstones are interpreted to be of Cruziana and Skolithos ichnofacies and represent shallow-marine shelf, shoreface, beach and coastal deposits. Sparse shelly fossils occur in the sandy upper part, principally bivalves, inarticulate brachiopods, ostracods and conodonts. The small assemblage of conodonts includes elements interpreted to be Tremadocian (Tetraprioniodus, Drepanoistodus, Drepanodus, Scolopodus, ?Tropodus, Semiacontiodus and Teridontus), and others which may be Floian or ancestral forms of Floian taxa (Balognathidae gen. et sp. indet. A & B and aff. Erraticodon). No acritarchs have been recovered, probably due to high temperatures experienced during burial to >6 km. It is likely that the Middle Shale Member is the seaward equivalent of the Mabrouk and Barakat formations, and an outcrop gamma-ray log supports such a correlation. The trace fossils, sedimentology, conodont fauna and the general lack of macrofossils are in keeping with the regional Tremadocian–Floian of the Arabian margin of Gondwana.

The lower Palaeozoic marine succession of NE Vietnam accumulated on the South China plate. Despite historical works dating to French colonial times, the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the succession is poorly constrained. Chief amongst the lower Palaeozoic lithostratigraphical divisions is the Than Sa Formation, a c. 1200 m thick succession of clastic rocks of Cambrian and early Ordovician age. Newly collected graptolites (including Rhabdinopora? sp. and Tetragraptus approximatus) from the upper part of the formation identify strata assignable to the Tremadocian and Floian stages of the Lower Ordovician. The same succession also probably records the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary. Our analysis identifies one or more intervals of graptolite-bearing laminated mudstones in the upper part of the Than Sa Formation that may be widespread in NE Vietnam during the early Tremadocian.

The first ever list of the regional Öland Series (Tremadocian to mid Darriwilian) trilobites and agnostids from the whole of Baltoscandia is compiled. The study includes revision of systematics as well as vertical and horizontal distribution. This is necessary because of the uneven state of knowledge, some faunas having being studied recently, others not for more than a century. Three successive faunal types are recognized: the Olenid Fauna surviving from the Cambrian in black bituminous shale facies, the immigrating Ceratopyge Fauna, and the stabilized Asaphid Fauna. The latter fauna collapsed in the middle of Darriwilian and gave way to a set of new post-Ölandian faunas.

The giant, agglutinated foraminiferan Bathysiphon Sars, previously Triassic–Recent, occurs in much older sedimentary rock (Early Ordovician, late early Tremadocian) of Avalonia. The genus extends back to c. 485 Ma based on its discovery in platform mudstone of the Chesley Drive Group in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Elongate (up to 60 mm), epibenthic Bathysiphon tubes occur in wave-rippled, green-grey mudstone with a low diversity, probably dysoxic fauna. The mudstone is coeval with and lithologically similar to the Shineton Formation in Shropshire and the Welsh Borderlands. Scanning microscopy of the Bathysiphon walls shows imbricated mica grains that parallel the long axis of the tests. The lumen has a mélange of packed sediment grains, some of which are spherical structures of siliciclastic mud studded with tetrahedral pyrite crystals. A felt-like, agglutinated test, a lumen packed with spherical structures (probable stercomata) and the domal ends of some specimens are consistent with modern Bathysiphon. This report is the first time that cytoplasmic activity and stercomata formation have been used to refer fossil protists to a modern group. Bathysiphon differs from the Cambrian foraminiferan Platysolenites Pander, which has an open lumen without stercomata, but support a comparable, sediment deposit-feeding niche. Bathysiphon is truly a ‘living fossil’, with a mode of test construction, cytoplasmic activity that formed stercomata and a niche unchanged for almost 500 million years. Foraminiferans have not been found prior to the Cambrian Period, and the Early Cambrian appearance of agglutinated foraminiferans is part of the radiation of Phanerozoic communities.

Twenty-two graptolite species are described from the Tremadoc portion of the Road River Group. In a 220 m thick, graptolite-rich section on Peel River, six graptolite biozones are recognized which in ascending order are: Staurograptus dichotomus, Anisograptus matanensis, Adelograptus cf. A. tenellus, Adelograptus antiquus, Kiaerograptus pritchardi and Paradelograptus kinnegraptoides. The Psigraptus fauna appears to be confined to a single bedding-plane within a thick interval dominated by Adelograptus cf. A. tenellus, and for this reason we propose a new zone characterized by the latter species rather than identify a Psigraptus Biozone as in China. The Adelograptus cf. A. tenellus Biozone has yielded Adelograptus? bulmani Spjeldnaes 1963, which we propose as the type species for the new genus Ancoragraptus. Graptolites recorded from the Tremadoc of the Yukon for the first time are: Ancoragraptus bulmani, Clonograptus magnificus, C. cf. C. multiplex, C. cf. C. rigidus, Hunnegraptus copiosus, Kiaerograptus? bulmani and K? kutchini sp. nov.