Tithonium

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system series step ≈ age ( mya )
higher higher higher younger
law Upper Jurassic Tithonium 145
⬍
152.1
Kimmeridgium 152.1
⬍
157.3
Oxfordium 157.3
⬍
163.5
Middle Jurassic Callovium 163.5
⬍
166.1
Bathonium 166.1
⬍
168.3
Bajocium 168.3
⬍
170.3
Aalenium 170.3
⬍
174.1
Lower Jurassic Toarcium 174.1
⬍
182.7
Pliensbachium 182.7
⬍
190.8
Sinemurium 190.8
⬍
199.3
Hettangium 199.3
⬍
201.3
deeper deeper deeper older

The tithonium (in German often shortened to tithon , more rarely also tithonia, until 1990 partly also referred to as portlandium ) is the highest chronostratigraphic level of the Jurassic and lasted geochronologically from about 152.1 to about 145 million years. The Tithonium follows the Kimmeridgium and is replaced by the Berriasium , the lowest level of the Lower Cretaceous .

Naming and history

The "Tithon" was introduced in 1865 by Albert Oppel . The name of the Tithonium goes back to Tithonos , a figure from Greek mythology . Tithonos was the husband of Eos , the goddess of the dawn, comparable to Tithonium, which is closely connected with the beginning of the Cretaceous period.

Definition and GSSP

The stage begins with the ammonite zone of the Hybonoticeras hybonotum and ends with the onset of the ammonite Berriasella jacobi . A GSSP (global type locality and type profile) has not yet been defined.

Breakdown

In the tithonium area, tithonium is subdivided into seven ammonite biozones:

There is a further subdivision of the level into a lower, middle and upper Tithonium, the latter corresponds to the Portlandian in England.

Facies training

In the area of ​​the marine deposits of the Tethys , the Tithon is formed as a calcareous facies with a typical cephalopod fauna. The fossils of the "primeval bird" Archeopteryx originate from the Tithonium of Germany ( Solnhofen limestone ) and are thus the oldest geological evidence of the evolution of birds .

literature

  • Felix Gradstein, Jim Ogg, Jim & Alan Smith: A Geologic timescale. Cambridge University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-521-78673-7
  • Hans Murawski & Wilhelm Meyer: Geological dictionary . 10., rework. u. exp. Ed., 278, Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1998 ISBN 3-432-84100-0 .
  • Albert Oppel: The Tithonic Floor. Journal of the German Geological Society, 1865: 535–558, Berlin 1865.

Web links