Ludlow Series

▪ geology

      the third of four main divisions (in ascending order) making up the Silurian (Silurian Period) System; it represents all those rocks on a global basis deposited during the Ludlow Epoch (422.9–418.7 million years ago). The name is derived from the type district, located immediately west of the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, Eng., where about 350 metres (1,150 feet) of siltstone and limestone strata occur.

      The base of the Ludlow Series was formally defined in 1980 on authority of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) with a global stratotype section and point (GSSP) in the quarry at Pitch Coppice on the south side of the Ludlow-Wigmore Road, 4 km (2.5 miles) southwest of Ludlow. The boundary point is coincident with the base of the Lower Elton Formation, which is equated with the base of the graptolite biozone Neodiversograptus nilssoni. Among the shelly fauna typical of the Ludlow Series—found in places as widely separated as the Midwestern United States and the Altai Mountains of Russia—are many species of brachiopods ( lamp shells) belonging to the genus Kirkidium. The top of the Ludlow Series is defined by the base of the overlying Pridoli Series. It is underlain by the top of the Wenlock Series. The Ludlow Series is divided into two worldwide stages: the Gorstian and Ludfordian stages.

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