In the

geological 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 geochrono ...

, the Berriasian 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 ...

/ stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

. It has been taken to span the time between 145.0 ± 4.0 Ma and 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma (million years ago). The Berriasian succeeds the

Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the K ...

(part of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

) and precedes the

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma and 132.9 ± 2.0 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretaceou ...

Stratigraphic definition

The Berriasian Stage was introduced in scientific literature by Henri Coquand in 1869. It is named after the village of Berrias in the

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The largely non-marine English Purbeck Formation is in part of Berriasian age.In fact, the first rocks to be described of this age were the beds of the English Purbeck Formation, named as the Purbeckian by

Alexandre Brongniart Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 17707 October 1847) was a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris. Observing fossil content ...

in 1829 following description by Henry De la Beche, William Buckland, Thomas Webster and William Henry Fitton. The base of the Berriasian, which is also the base of the Cretaceous

System A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

, has traditionally been placed at the first appearance of fossils of the

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 '' Berriasella jacobi''. But this is a species that has a stratigraphically problematic and geographically limited distribution. A global reference profile (a GSSP) for the Berriasian has been under active consideration by the Berriasian Working Group (ISCS) of

IUGS The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology. About The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the Inte ...

since 2010. A range of contender GSSP localities has been studied in detail by the Working Group including localities as far apart as Mexico, Ukraine, Tunisia, Iraq and the Russian Far East. Several markers have been employed to refine correlations and to work towards defining a base for the Berriasian Stage. These include calcareous microfossils, such as '' Nannoconus'',

calpionellid Calpionellids are an extinct group of eukaryotic single celled organisms of uncertain affinities. Their fossils are found in marine rocks of Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous age. They were planktic organisms with urn-shaped, calcitic tests tha ...

s, palynological data and magnetostratigraphy, notably magnetozone M19n. The calibration of these markers, especially ''Nannoconus steinmannii minor'', ''N. kamptneri minor'', and '' Calpionella alpina'', within precisely fixed magnetozones give greater precision in trying to identify the best position for a boundary. In 2016, the Berriasian Working Group voted to adopt ''Calpionella alpina'' as the primary marker for the base of the Berriasian Stage. In 2019, a GSSP for the Berriasian was nominated by a vote of the Berriasian Working Group of the Cretaceous Subcommission (ISCS): it is the profile of Tré Maroua in the Vocontian Basin (Hautes Alpes, France). The GSSP was defined at the base of the Alpina Subzone in the middle of magnetozone M19n.2n. This site proposal, of Tré Maroua, was subsequently unsuccessful in a vote of the ISCS (8 votes for and 8 against: 4 not voting); a new working group was formed in 2021. In the western part of the ocean of Tethys, the Berriasian consists of four ammonite biozones, from top to bottom (latest to earliest): * '' Thurmanniceras otopeta'' * '' Subthurmannia boissieri'' * ''

Tirnovella occitanica ''Tirnovella'' is an extinct subgenus of ammonoid cephalopod, from the early Cretaceous. Use in Stratigraphy The group is often used as an index fossil, with ''Tirnovella alpillensis'' being used to define border between the Berriasian and th ...

'' * '' Berriasella jacobi/ Pseudosubplanites grandis'' The top of the Berriasian stage is defined by the base of the Valanginian, which is fixed at the first appearance of

species ''

Calpionellites darderi ''Calpionellites darderi'' is an extinct planktonic eukaryote and an important index fossil for the Lower Cretaceous stratigraphy. The first appearance of ''C. darderi'' marks the beginning of the Valanginian. It also defines the base of the "Cal ...

''. This is just a little below the first appearance of the ammonite species '' Thurmanniceras pertransiens''. Regional terms used in Russia include "Volgian"(which spans perhaps the latest Kimmeridgian, all the Tithonian and an uncertain amount of the lower Berriasian) and the "Ryazanian" (?upper Berriasian) .

References

Notes

Literature

*; (2004): A Geologic Time Scale 2004,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

External links

GeoWhen Database - BerriasianJurassic-Cretaceous timescale
at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS
Stratigraphic chart of the Lower Cretaceous
at the website of Norges Network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy {{Geological history, p, m *01 Geological ages Cretaceous geochronology