Faunal Provinces and Ancient Continents in the Scandinavian Caledonides
The presence of certain Ordovician American faunal elements in the Caledonian allochthon of Scandinavia rather than the European ones of the nearby Baltic autochthon has led to proposals by advocates of plate tectonics that part of the division or suture between American and Baltic plates of Caledonian times now lies down the center of the Scandinavian Caledonides (Wilson, 1966; Dewey, 1969). It is suggested here, however, that the basement to the Caledonian cover is Baltic throughout rather than American to the west and Baltic to the east, and that if a suture is present it must be a flat-lying thrustlike structure in the cover of the orogen not allowing steep rooting of cover rocks between different plates until regions beyond the present Norwegian Atlantic coast are reached.