Abstract In the Ross Sea area fossiliferous Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks mainly crop out in the central Transantarctic Mountains and in northern Victoria Land. In the former area, shallow marine Cambrian sediments, part of a semicontinuous belt deposited along the margin of the East Antarctic craton between the Ross and Weddell Seas, rest unconformably on strongly deformed Late Precambrian sediments. In the Queen Maud Mountains, Early to Middle Cambrian limestone and associated clastic sediments (Liv Group) are subordinate to silicic volcanic rocks up to 3000 m thick. Farther north, between the Byrd and Beardmore Glaciers, over 8000 m of Byrd Group are dominated by Early and ?Middle Cambrian archaeocyathine limestone. Deformation and metamorphism during the Late Cambrian Ross Orogeny were followed during the Early Ordovician by intrusion of granitic batholiths (Granite Harbour Intrusives). The Bowers Supergroup, faulted against flanking older sequences, includes all known Lower Palaeozoic sediments ...