The Darriwilian acritarch assemblage from Ordovician deposits of the Arkhangelsk Oblast, the northern Russian Plate

Borehole 2506 drilled in the northern area of the Arkhangelsk Oblast penetrated through the Paleozoic sedimentary block isolated in the Vendian thick sequence. A diverse acritarch assemblage has been established within the depth interval of 119.9–217.5 m. The assemblage comprises more than 70 taxa, including species characteristic of the boundary interval between the Volkhov and Kunda horizons of the East European Platform (the graptolite Didymograptus hirundo Zone). Stratigraphic position of host deposits was established within the Darriwilian Stage of the Middle Ordovician. The described assemblage of microphytofossils is similar to coeval assemblages from NW Russia, Baltic region, and Scandinavia, being typical of the Baltic phytoplankton province of temperate latitudes. A great number of species in common suggests that the assemblage under consideration is correlative with coeval assemblages of southern China thus offering a possibility of remote correlation.