The Mammal Neogene zones or MN zones are system of
biostratigraphic
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. “Biostratigraphy.” ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Bio ...
zones
Zone or The Zone may refer to:
Places Climate and altitude zones
* Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span
* Frigid zone, ...
in the stratigraphic record used to correlate
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
-bearing
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
localities of the
Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
period of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. It consists of seventeen consecutive zones (numbered MN 1 through MN 18; MN 7 and 8 have been joined into MN 7/8 zone) defined through reference faunas, well-known sites that other localities can be correlated with. MN 1 is the earliest zone, and MN 18 is the most recent. The MN zones are complementary with the
MP zones in the
Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
.
The zones are as follows:
See also
*
MP zonation
*
European land mammal age
The European Land Mammal Mega Zones (abbreviation: ELMMZ, more commonly known as European land mammal ages or ELMA) are zones in rock layers that have a specific assemblage of fossils (biozones) based on occurrences of fossil assemblages of Europe ...
*
Geologic time scale
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 ...
References
* Bruijn, H. de, Daams, R., Daxner-Höck, G., Fahlbusch, V., Ginsburg, L., Mein, P. and Morales, J. (1992.) "Report of the RCMNS working group on fossil mammals", Reisensburg 1990. ''Newsletters on Stratigraphy'' 26(2–3):65–118.
* Dam, J. A. van, Alcalá, L., Alonso Zarza, A., Calvo, J. P., Garcés, M. and Krijgsman, W. (2001.) "The Upper Miocene mammal record from the Teruel–Alfambra region (Spain). The MN system and continental stage/age concepts discussed." ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 21(2):367–385. .
.
.
Neogene Europe
Miocene animals of Europe
Pliocene animals of Europe
Neogene mammals of Europe
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