Viséan#Biostratigraphy

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.{{aut|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.

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. A GSSP has been proposed in the Luzhai Formation near Penchong in the Chinese province of Guanxi.{{aut|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 The top (the base of the Serpukhovian and Namurian) is laid at the first appearance of the conodont Lochriea ziegleri,{{aut|Nemyrovska, T.I.}}; 2005: Late Visean/early Serpukhovian conodont succession from the Triollo section, Palencia (Cantabrian Mountains, Spain), Scr. Geol. 129, pp 13–89 or at the base of the biozone of goniatite Cravenoceras leion.

The Carboniferous-Earliest Permian Biodiversification Event began in the Viséan, coinciding with the start of the main phase of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.{{cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=Yukun |last2=Wang |first2=Xiangdong |last3=Fan |first3=Junxuan |last4=Huang |first4=Hao |last5=Xu |first5=Huiqing |last6=Zhao |first6=Yingying |last7=Shen |first7=Shuzhong |date=September 2021 |title=Carboniferous-earliest Permian marine biodiversification event (CPBE) during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825221002002 |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=220 |page=103699 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103699 |bibcode=2021ESRv..22003699S |access-date=4 September 2022|url-access=subscription }}

The late Viséan saw the widespread reappearance of metazoan reefs after their devastation during the Hangenberg Event.{{cite journal |last1=Yao |first1=Le |last2=Aretz |first2=Markus |last3=Wignall |first3=Paul B. |last4=Chen |first4=Jitao |last5=Vachard |first5=Daniel |last6=Qi |first6=Yuping |last7=Shen |first7=Shuzhong |last8=Wang |first8=Xiangdong |date=April 2020 |title=The longest delay: Re-emergence of coral reef ecosystems after the Late Devonian extinctions |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825219305628 |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=203 |page=103060 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.103060 |bibcode=2020ESRv..20303060Y |s2cid=213966485 |access-date=23 November 2022}}

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,{{Cite journal|last=Smithson|first=T. R.|date=December 1989|title=The earliest known reptile|journal=Nature|language=En|volume=342|issue=6250|pages=676–678|doi=10.1038/342676a0|bibcode=1989Natur.342..676S |s2cid=4358046|issn=0028-0836}} more recent research has cast doubt on this interpretation.{{Cite journal|last1=Smithson|first1=T. R.|last2=Carroll|first2=R. L.|last3=Panchen|first3=A. L.|last4=Andrews|first4=S. M.|date=1993|title=Westlothiana lizziae from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland, and the amniote stem|journal=Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh|language=en|volume=84|issue=3–4|pages=383–412|doi=10.1017/S0263593300006192|s2cid=129807712 |issn=1755-6929}}

== 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:{{aut|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.

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

{{reflist}}

• {{aut|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 lang|fr}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060518101823/http://norges.uio.no/timescale/Fig14.1_Carbon-colA.pdf Upper] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20060518101835/http://norges.uio.no/timescale/Fig14.1_Carbon-bcolB.pdf lower] time scales for the Carboniferous at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy
• [http://www.stratigraphy.org/bak/geowhen/stages/Visean.html Visean, Geowhen Database]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090604183443/http://palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Carboniferous/Visean.htm The Viséan age], www.palaeos.com

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Category:Mississippian geochronology

Category:Geological ages

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Category:Stratigraphy of Europe