36 M. Bubík, A. Ciurej & M.A. Kaminski (eds) Paleozoic Palaeobiogeography of the East European Platform in Poland Jan GOLONKA 1 , Jan BARMUTA 1 , Anna WAĝKOWSKA 1 , Piotr KRZYWIEC 2 , Kaja PIETSCH 1 , Bartosz PAPIERNIK 1 , Szczepan J. PORĉBSKI 1 , Maria BARMUTA 1 , Justyna NOSAL 1 , Monika KASPERSKA 1 , Michał MICHNA 1 , Arkadiusz BUNIAK 3 and Zbigniew MIKOŁAJźWSKI 4 1 AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection; 2 Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy Of Sciences; 3 Orlen Upstream; 4 Polish Oil & Gas Company (PGNiG) Baltica consisted of a major part of northern Europe. It was bound on the west by the Iapetus suture, on the east by the Ural suture, on the south by the Variscan/Hercynian suture, and on the southwest by a suture located close, but not quite along the Teisseyre-Tornquist line. Baltica included part of Poland and adjacent areas northeast of line, which ran from Scania through Western Pomerania, ŁódĨ, Holy Cross Mountains Fault to the Black Sea. This line separate the East European Platform and element sutured to Baltica. The present authors attempted to provide maps of the Eastern European Platform in Poland during Paleozoic times. These maps were constructed using a plate tectonic model based on PLATES, GPLATES and PALEOMAP software. The plate tectonic reconstruction programs takes tectonic features in the form of digitised data files, assembles those features in accordance with user specified rotation criteria The rotation file contains a list of finite rotations between pairs of tectonic elements, at different episodes of time, with brief bibliographic notes or general comments for each individual rotation. Information derived from global and regional papers followed by the authors own research were posted on the maps and the general palaeoenvironment zones were distinguished within the platforms, basins and ridges. The position of plates was based on palaeomagnetic data and geological observation. It was also augmented by palaeontological data, which included several groups of benthos and plankton, mainly trilobites, brachiopods, corals, graptolites, foraminifers and others. This augmentation is a subject of palaeobiogeography. Fossils became an important factor in our understanding of the distribution of plates since the birth of plate tectonics. The palaeobiogeographic studies contributed to understanding that present day Poland was built as a mosaic of plates sutured together during Phanerozoic times. Baltica originated as a result of disintegration of supercontinent Pannotia, which occurred during Early Cambrian. Early Ordovician was the time of maximum dispersion of continents during the Paleozoic. The benthic fauna of Baltica became endemic showing that large oceans separated this palaeocontinent from Gondwana and other plates. Avalonia probably started to drift from Gondwana and move towards Baltica in the late Tremadocian and was in a drift stage by the Llanvirnian. Between Gondwana, Baltica, Avalonia and Laurentia, a large longitudinal oceanic unit, known as the Rheic Ocean was formed. Avalonia was probably sutured to Baltica by the end of Ordovician or in the Early Silurian. This process was dominated by a strike-slip suturing of the two continents, rather than by full-scale continent- continent collision. Silurian was a time of Caledonian orogeny, closing of Early Paleozoic oceans, collision of Baltica with Avalonia and Laurentia and origin of supercontinent Laurussia. The Variscan Orogeny was caused by the collision of Bohemian Massif plates and Protocarpathian terrane with Laurussia. The Protocarpathian terrane acted as an indentor, which caused thrust tectonics of the Eastern