In the
geologic timescale
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...
the Bathonian is an
age
Age or AGE may refer to:
Time and its effects
* Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed
** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1
* Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...
and
stage of the
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
. It lasted from approximately 168.3
Ma to around 166.1 Ma (million years ago). The Bathonian Age succeeds the
Bajocian Age and precedes the
Callovian Age.
Stratigraphic definitions
The Bathonian Stage takes its name from
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
, a
spa town in England built on Jurassic
limestone (the Latinized form of the town name is ''Bathonium''). The name was introduced in scientific literature by Belgian geologist
d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1843. The original
type locality was located near Bath. The French palaeontologist
Alcide d'Orbigny was in 1852 the first to define the exact length of the stage.
The base of the Bathonian is at the first appearance of
ammonite
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
species ''
Parkinsonia (Gonolkites) convergens'' in the
stratigraphic column. The global reference profile for the base of the Bathonian (a
GSSP) was ratified as Ravin du Bès, Bas-Auran area, Alpes de Haute Provence, France in 2009.
The top of the Bathonian (the base of the Callovian Stage) is at the first appearance of ammonite
genus ''
Kepplerites''.
In the
Tethys domain, the Bathonian contains eight ammonite
biozones:
*zone of ''
Clydoniceras discus''
*zone of ''
Hecticoceras retrocostatum''
*zone of ''
Cadomites bremeri''
*zone of ''
Morrisiceras morrisi''
*zone of ''
Tulites subcontractus''
*zone of ''
Procerites progracilis''
*zone of ''Procerites aurigerus''
*zone of ''
Zigzagiceras zigzag''
Rocks of Bathonian age are well developed in
Europe: in the northwest and southwest oolite
limestones are characteristically associated with
coral-bearing,
crinoidal and other varieties, and with some beds of clay. In the north and northeast,
Russia, etc.,
clays,
sandstones and ferruginous oolites prevail, some of the last being exploited for
iron. They occur also in the extreme north of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and in the
Arctic regions,
Greenland,
Franz Josef Land, etc.; in
Africa,
Algeria,
Tanzania,
Madagascar and near the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
(Enon Beds); in
India,
Rajputana
Rājputana, meaning "Land of the Rajputs", was a region in the Indian subcontinent that included mainly the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan, as well as parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and some adjoining areas of Sindh in modern-day ...
and
Gulf of Kutch, and in
South America.
[ That article further references A. de Lapparent, ''Traité de géologie'' (5th ed., 1906), vol ii.]
The well-known Caen stone of
Normandy and "Hauptrogenstein" of
Swabia
Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
, as well as the "Eisenkalk" of northwest Germany, and "Klaus-Schichten" of the
Austrian Alps
The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent ...
, are of Bathonian age.
References
Notes
Literature
* ; 2004: ''A Geologic Time Scale 2004'',
Cambridge University Press.
* ; 1843: ''Précis élémentaire de géologie'', Bertrand, Paris.
External links
GeoWhen Database - BathonianJurassic-Cretaceous timescale
at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS
Stratigraphic chart of the Upper Jurassic
at the website of Norges Network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy
{{Geological history, p, m
*03
Geological ages