Viséan

The Visean, Viséan or Visian is an age in the ICS geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the second stage of the Mississippian, the lower subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Visean lasted from 346.7 to 330.9 Ma.^[2] It follows the Tournaisian age/stage and is followed by the Serpukhovian age/stage.

Viséan
346.7 ± 0.4 – 330.9 ± 0.2 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Paleogeography of the late Viséan
Chronology
−360 — – −355 — – −350 — – −345 — – −340 — – −335 — – −330 — – −325 — – −320 — – −315 — – −310 — – −305 — – −300 — – Paleozoic D Carboniferous P Mississippian Pennsylvanian LD Early Middle Late Early Mid Late CS Famennian Tournaisian Viséan Serpukhovian Bashkirian Moscovian Kasimovian Gzhelian Asselian     ← Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse ← Mazon Creek Fossils ← End of Romer's Gap ← Start of Romer's Gap Subdivision of the Carboniferous according to the ICS, as of 2023.[1] Vertical axis scale: Millions of years ago
Etymology
Name formality	Formal
Alternate spelling(s)	Visean, Visian
Usage information
Celestial body	Earth
Regional usage	Global (ICS)
Time scale(s) used	ICS Time Scale
Definition
Chronological unit	Age
Stratigraphic unit	Stage
Time span formality	Formal
Lower boundary definition	FAD of the benthic foraminifer Eoparastaffella simplex
Lower boundary GSSP	Pengchong Section, Guangxi, China 24.4333°N 109.4500°E / 24.4333; 109.4500
Lower GSSP ratified	2008
Upper boundary definition	Not formally defined
Upper boundary definition candidates	FAD of the conodont Lochriea ziegleri
Upper boundary GSSP candidate section(s)	Verkhnyaya Kardailovka, Ural Mountains Nashui, Luodian County, Guizhou, China

Name and definitions

The Viséan Stage was introduced by Belgian geologist André Dumont in 1832. Dumont named this stage after the city of Visé in Belgium's Liège Province. Before being used as an international stage, the Viséan Stage was part of the (West) European regional geologic time scale, in which it followed the Tournaisian Stage and is followed by the Namurian Stage. In the North American regional scale, the Viséan Stage correlates with the upper Osagean, the Meramecian and lower Chesterian stages. In the Chinese regional time scale, it correlates with the lower and middle Tatangian series.^[3]

The base of the Viséan Stage is at the first appearance of the fusulinid species Eoparastaffella simplex (morphotype 1/morphotype 2). The type locality for the stage base used to be in a road section below the castle of Dinant in Belgium, but this type locality proved to be insufficient for the purpose of stratigraphic correlation.^[3] A GSSP has been proposed in the Luzhai Formation near Penchong in the Chinese province of Guanxi.^[4] The top (the base of the Serpukhovian and Namurian) is laid at the first appearance of the conodont Lochriea ziegleri,^[5] or at the base of the biozone of goniatite Cravenoceras leion.

Biota

The Carboniferous-Earliest Permian Biodiversification Event began in the Viséan, coinciding with the start of the main phase of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.^[6]

The late Viséan saw the widespread reappearance of metazoan reefs after their devastation during the Hangenberg Event.^[7]

One of the tetrapods that lived during the Visean age was Westlothiana, a reptile-like amphibian. Though originally thought to be the earliest discovered amniote,^[8] more recent research has cast doubt on this interpretation.^[9]

Biostratigraphy

The Visean contains four conodont biozones:

• Lochriea nodosa Zone
• Lochriea mononodosa Zone
• Gnathodus bilineatus Zone
• Gnathodus texanus Zone

In British stratigraphy, the Visean is subdivided into five substages. From youngest to oldest, these are:^[10]

• Brigantian
• Asbian
• Holkerian
• Arundian
• Chadian (the lower part of this substage falls in the Tournaisian)

References

1. "International Chronostratigraphic Chart" (PDF). International Commission on Stratigraphy. September 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
2. "International Chronostratigraphic Chart". International Commission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
3. Menning, M.; Alekseev, A.S.; Chuvashov, B.I.; Davydov, V.I.; Devuyst, F.-X.; Forke, H.C.; Grunt, T.A.; Hance, L.; Heckel, P.H.; Izokh, N.G.; Jin, Y.-G.; Jones, P.J.; Kotlyar, G.V.; Kozur, H.W.; Nemyrovska, T.I.; Schneider, J.W.; Wang, X.-D.; Weddige, K.; Weyer, D. & Work, D.M.; 2006: Global time scale and regional stratigraphic reference scales of Central and West Europe, East Europe, Tethys, South China, and North America as used in the Devonian–Carboniferous–Permian Correlation Chart 2003 (DCP 2003), Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 240 (1-2): pp 318–372.
4. Devuyst, F.X.; Hance, L.; Hou, H.-F.; Wu, X.; Tian, S.; Coen, M. & Sevastopulo, G.; 2003: A proposed Global Stratotype Section and Point for the base of the Visean Stage (Carboniferous): the Pengchong section, Guangxi, South China, Episodes 26 (2), pp 105–115
5. Nemyrovska, T.I.; 2005: Late Visean/early Serpukhovian conodont succession from the Triollo section, Palencia (Cantabrian Mountains, Spain), Scr. Geol. 129, pp 13–89
6. Shi, Yukun; Wang, Xiangdong; Fan, Junxuan; Huang, Hao; Xu, Huiqing; Zhao, Yingying; Shen, Shuzhong (September 2021). "Carboniferous-earliest Permian marine biodiversification event (CPBE) during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age". Earth-Science Reviews. 220: 103699. Bibcode:2021ESRv..22003699S. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103699. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
7. Yao, Le; Aretz, Markus; Wignall, Paul B.; Chen, Jitao; Vachard, Daniel; Qi, Yuping; Shen, Shuzhong; Wang, Xiangdong (April 2020). "The longest delay: Re-emergence of coral reef ecosystems after the Late Devonian extinctions". Earth-Science Reviews. 203: 103060. Bibcode:2020ESRv..20303060Y. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.103060. S2CID 213966485. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
8. Smithson, T. R. (December 1989). "The earliest known reptile". Nature. 342 (6250): 676–678. Bibcode:1989Natur.342..676S. doi:10.1038/342676a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4358046.
9. Smithson, T. R.; Carroll, R. L.; Panchen, A. L.; Andrews, S. M. (1993). "Westlothiana lizziae from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland, and the amniote stem". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 84 (3–4): 383–412. doi:10.1017/S0263593300006192. ISSN 1755-6929. S2CID 129807712.
10. Heckel, P.H. & Clayton, G.; 2006: The Carboniferous system, use of the new official names for the subsystems, series and stages, Geologica Acta 4(3), pp 403–407.

Further reading

• Dumont, A.H.; 1832: Mémoire sur la constitution géologique de la province de Liège, Mémoires couronnés par l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles 8 (3), VII. (in French)

External links

• Upper and lower time scales for the Carboniferous at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy
• Visean, Geowhen Database
• The Viséan age, www.palaeos.com

24.4333°N 109.4500°E / 24.4333; 109.4500