Serpukhovian Stage

▪ geology

      third of three internationally defined stages of the Mississippian Subsystem (Mississippian Subperiod), Carboniferous System (Carboniferous Period), encompassing all rocks deposited during the Serpukhovian Age (326.4 to 318.1 million years ago). The Serpukhovian is the shortest of the Carboniferous stages. The name is derived from the Russian city of Serpukhov, near Moscow in the Moscow Basin—although the type section is not complete there, and the principal reference exposures are in the Russian Ural Mountains. Serpukhovian strata yield abundant and varied fossil assemblages that have been studied extensively in Russia.

      Currently the base of the Serpukhovian is roughly approximated near the first appearance of the conodont (a primitive chordate with tooth-shaped fossil remains) Lochriea ziegleri. This falls at a horizon that matches the base of the Namurian Series of rocks in western Europe and is above the base of the Chesterian Series in North America. The base of the stage in the Moscow Basin relates to the appearance of the foraminiferans (pseudopod-using unicellular organisms protected by a test or shell) Pseudoendothyra globosa and Neoarchaediscus parvus. The top of the Serpukhovian is overlain by the Bashkirian Stage of the Pennsylvanian Subsystem (Pennsylvanian Subperiod) and corresponds to the internationally accepted boundary drawn at the appearance of the conodont Declinognathodus noduliferus. The boundary also reflects a significant drop in global sea level, which was produced by extensive glaciation (glacier) on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.

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