A critical evaluation of fossil reports from the lower Palaeozoic of the Stavelot-Venn Inlier (Belgium, western Germany)

ABSTRACT The macrofossil record of the lower Palaeozoic Stavelot-Venn Inlier is revised. This inlier is the largest of the four inliers of the Ardenne Allochthon in southern Belgium and northern France, and it extends from southeastern Belgium into western Germany. The thick succession of mostly siliciclastic rocks has been traditionally assigned to the lower Cambrian to Middle Ordovician, but macrofossils are extremely rare and the microfossil (acritarch) records need revision. The presence of the ichnogenus Oldhamia indicates an early/middle Cambrian age for the lower (but not lowest) part of the succession. The graptolites from the Rhabdinopora fauna clearly point out the presence of the Tremadocian (Lower Ordovician) strata; they are locally associated with small linguliformean brachiopods (e.g., Broeggeria , Lingulella ). The present revision, based on examination of the Belgian material, indicates that none of the trilobite, phyllocarid and sponge records in the literature can be confirmed. From all macrofossils mentioned in the literature, only few linguliformean brachiopod levels can be confirmed in the (? middle–upper) Cambrian and in the Lower Ordovician. The alleged bivalve from the Cambrian of the French part of the Rocroi Inlier is reillustrated.