Lower Silurian of the Hlinsko Zone (E Bohemia): graptolite fossil record, biostratigraphy and palaeogeographical links

Large graptolite material have been collected in the Hlinsko Zone by bulk sampling of the Silurian black slates and cherts of the Mrákotín Formation. This fauna and specimens deposited in museum collections will undergo systematic taxonomic description and will be further interpreted from both biostratigraphic and palaeogeographic/ palaeoenvironmental viewpoints. Present, still scattered biostratigraphic data on the lower Silurian of the Hlinsko Zone will be completed and original sedimentary succession of its badly tectonized and poorly exposed strata will be reconstructed, in particular by means of detailed biostratigraphic correlation with Barrandian area, Thuringia and Bardo Mountains. A lithostratigraphic correlation of biostratigraphically subdivided sedimentary succession of the Mrákotín Formation will help to elucidate palaeogeographic position of the Lower Palaeozoic of the Hlinsko Zone within the Variscan units of the Bohemian Massif.