The Ordovician of the Ebbe Inlier (Rhenish Massif, western Germany) revisited

Outcrops of Ordovician sediments in western Germany are of very limited extent. In the Ebbe Inlier (Rhenish Massif) strongly tectonized, mostly fine-grained detrital Middle to Upper Ordovician rocks have been described since the 1910s. These sediments underwent a careful revision in the last 20 years. Four formations, attributed to the Herscheid Group, yielded diverse fossil assemblages (including trilobites, graptolites, ostracods, chitinozoans, acritarchs and other groups) that allow attribution to age intervals between the Abereiddian (Darriwilian) and the Streffordian (early Katian). The sedimentary facies shows greatest resemblance to the successions of the Condroz Inlier in Belgium. Palaeogeographically, they constitute the southeasternmost part of eastern Avalonia.