The Moscovian is in the ICS

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 ...

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

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 ...

in the Pennsylvanian, the youngest

subsystem A system is a group of 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, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed ...

of the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

. The Moscovian age lasted from to Ma, is preceded by the Bashkirian and is followed by the

Kasimovian The Kasimovian is a geochronology, geochronologic age (geology), age or chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic stage (stratigraphy), stage in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timescale. It is the third stage in the Penn ...

. The Moscovian overlaps with the European regional Westphalian stage and the North American Atokan and Desmoinesian stages.

Name and definition

The Moscovian Stage was introduced by Sergei Nikitin (1850 - 1909) in 1890, using

brachiopods Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, whi ...

in the Moscow Basin of

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

. Nikitin named the stage after

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, then a major city and now the capital of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The base of the Moscovian is close to the first appearances of the

conodont Conodonts (Greek ''kōnos'', "cone", + ''odont'', "tooth") are an extinct group of agnathan (jawless) vertebrates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from their tooth-like oral elements, which ...

s '' Declinognathodus donetzianus'' and '' Idiognathoides postsulcatus'' or otherwise the

fusulinid The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are traditionally considered to have been composed of microgranular calcite. Like all forams, they were single-celled organisms. In advanced forms the test wall was di ...

''Aljutovella aljutovica''. Because the fusulinid species are regionally different, they can not be used for worldwide correlation. A

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. The effort to define GSSPs is conducted b ...

for the Moscovian Stage has yet to be defined (2008). A proposal is to use the first appearance of the conodont '' Diplognathodus ellesmerensis'', but since the species is rare and its evolution relatively unknown, it has not been accepted yet.
a report by the taskforce to establish a Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary (Groves ''et al.'' (2008)) The top of the Moscovian (base of the Kasimovian) is at the base of the fusulinid

biozone In biostratigraphy, biostratigraphic units or biozones are intervals of geological strata that are defined on the basis of their characteristic fossil taxa, as opposed to a lithostratigraphic unit which is defined by the lithological properties of ...

of ''Obsoletes obsoletes'' and ''Protriticites pseudomontiparus'', or with the first appearance 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) ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Parashumardites''.

Subdivisions

In European Russia and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, where the stage was first recognized, the Moscovian is subdivided into four regional substages: Vereiskian, Kashirskian, Podolskian, and Myachkovskian, named after towns near Moscow (

Vereya Vereya (russian: Верея) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Vereya, Naro-Fominsky District, Moscow Oblast, a town in Naro-Fominsky District of Moscow Oblast ;Rural localities * Vereya, Orekhovo-Zuyevsky ...

Kashira Kashira (russian: Каши́ра) is a town and the administrative center of Kashirsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River south of Moscow. Population: History It was first mentioned in 1356 as the village of Koshira ...

Podolsk Podolsk ( rus, Подольск, p=pɐˈdolʲsk) is an industrial city, center of Podolsk Urban Okrug, Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Pakhra River (a tributary of the Moskva River). History The first mentions of the village of Podol, w ...

, and Myachkovo). The Moscovian can biostratigraphically be divided into five conodont

s: * ''Neognathodus roundyi'' and ''Streptognathodus cancellosus'' Zone * ''Neognathodus medexultimus'' and ''Streptognathodus concinnus'' Zone * ''Streptognathodus dissectus'' Zone * ''Neognathodus uralicus'' Zone * ''Declinognathodus donetzianus'' Zone

References

External links

Carboniferous timescale
at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy

{{Geological history, p, p, state=collapsed Pennsylvanian geochronology Geological ages