Santonian Stage

Santonian Stage

      fourth of six main divisions (in ascending order) of the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Santonian Age, which occurred 85.8 to 83.5 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of the Santonian overlie those of the Coniacian Stage and underlie rocks of the Campanian Stage.

      The stage's name derives from the town of Saintes in western France, the area surrounding which is the classic type district for rocks of this age. The Santonian Stage is represented in northern Continental Europe by the Granulaten Chalk, in Britain by part of the Upper Chalk, and in the United States by part of the Niobrara Limestone. Though it does not occur in the type district, the ammonite (ammonoid) Texanites texanum is widely used as an index fossil to mark the base of the stage in regions as distant as Texas, Japan, southern Africa, Madagascar, and the Middle East. The Santonian has been divided into several shorter spans of time called biozones (biozone), some of which are characterized by the calcareous nannofossils Marthasterites furcatus and Lithastrinus grilli. The planktonic foraminiferans (foraminiferan) Marginotruncana carinata and M. concavata are also used as index fossils for rocks of this stage.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Santonian — The Santonian is a faunal stageCite web | url=http://www.bgs.ac.uk/Education/britstrat/timecharts/CRETAC/cretac.html | title=BGS Geological Timechart Cretaceous | accessdate=2008 03 22 | publisher=British Geological Survey] of the Late Cretaceous …   Wikipedia

  • Coniacian Stage — ▪ geology       third of six main divisions (in ascending order) in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Coniacian Age, which occurred 89.3 to 85.8 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of …   Universalium

  • Campanian Stage — ▪ geology       fifth of six main divisions (in ascending order) in the Upper Cretaceous Series, representing rocks deposited worldwide during the Campanian Age, which occurred 83.5 to 70.6 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Rocks of …   Universalium

  • Oxfordian (stage) — System Series Stage Age (Ma) Cretaceous Lower Berriasian younger Jurassic Upper Tith …   Wikipedia

  • Cretaceous Period — Interval of geologic time from с 144 to 65 million years ago. During the Cretaceous the climate was warmer than today. In the seas, marine invertebrates flourished, and bony fishes evolved. On land, flowering plants arose, and insects, bees in… …   Universalium

  • Coniacian — System Series Stage Age (Ma) Paleogene Paleocene Danian younger Cretaceous Upper …   Wikipedia

  • Achillobator — Taxobox name = Achillobator fossil range = Late Cretaceous image width = 200px image caption = Achillobator giganticus regnum = Animalia phylum = Chordata classis = Sauropsida superordo = Dinosauria ordo = Saurischia subordo = Theropoda familia …   Wikipedia

  • Fagales — ▪ plant order Introduction   beech order of dicotyledonous woody flowering plants, comprising nearly 1,900 species in 55 genera. Members of Fagales represent some of the most important temperate deciduous or evergreen trees of both hemispheres,… …   Universalium

  • Myrtales — ▪ plant order Introduction       the myrtle order of flowering plants, composed of 14 families, 380 genera, and about 11,000 species distributed throughout the tropics and warmer regions of the world. The majority of these species belong to just… …   Universalium

  • Aucasaurus — Taxobox| name = Aucasaurus fossil range = Late Cretaceous image width = 200px regnum = Animalia phylum = Chordata classis = Sauropsida superordo = Dinosauria ordo = Saurischia subordo = Theropoda infraordo = Ceratosauria familia = Abelisauridae… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”