The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.6 ± 2 Ma and 125.77 (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by the Valanginian and succeeded by the Barremian.[3]

Hauterivian
~132.6 – ~125.77 Ma
Chronology
Etymology
Name formalityFormal
Usage information
Celestial bodyEarth
Regional usageGlobal (ICS)
Time scale(s) usedICS Time Scale
Definition
Chronological unitAge
Stratigraphic unitStage
Time span formalityFormal
Lower boundary definitionFAD of the Ammonite genus Acanthodiscus
Lower boundary GSSPLa Charce, Drôme, France
44°28′10″N 5°26′37″E / 44.4694°N 5.4437°E / 44.4694; 5.4437
Lower GSSP ratifiedDecember 2019[2]
Upper boundary definitionNot formally defined
Upper boundary definition candidatesFAD of the Spitidiscus hugii-Spitidiscus vandeckii Ammonite group
Upper boundary GSSP candidate section(s)Río Argos, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia Province, Spain

Stratigraphic definitions

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The Hauterivian was introduced in scientific literature by Swiss geologist Eugène Renevier in 1873. It is named after the Swiss town of Hauterive at the shore of Lake Neuchâtel.

The base of the Hauterivian is defined as the place in the stratigraphic column where the ammonite genus Acanthodiscus first appears. A reference profile for the base (a GSSP) was officially ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences in December of 2019, and is placed in La Charce, France.[2] The top of the Hauterivian (the base of the Barremian) is at the first appearance of ammonite species Spitidiscus hugii.

In the ammonite biostratigraphy of the Tethys domain, the Hauterivian contains seven ammonite biozones:

Climate

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Some palaeoclimatological studies indicate that a brief ice age, known as the Hauterivian cold snap, occurred during this age. The Hauterivian cold snap appears to be associated with permafrost at high elevations and large ice sheets that potentially stretched as far south as the modern Iberian Peninsula, based on the existence of Hauterivian ice-rafted dropstones in Iberia. Cold conditions are also known to have existed in the Southern Hemisphere during the same time period, based on records from Australia. Similar cold periods with associated glaciations are also known from the earlier Valanginian and the later Aptian & early Albian periods, all contrasting with the typical image of the Cretaceous as a greenhouse period.[4][5][6][7]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ International Commission on Stratigraphy. "ICS - Chart/Time Scale". www.stratigraphy.org.
  2. ^ a b Mutterlose, Jörg; Rawson, Peter; Reboulet, Stéphane; Baudin, François; Bulot, Luc; Emmanuel, Laurent; Gardin, Silvia; Martinez, Mathieu; Renard, Maurice (September 2020). "The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Hauterivian Stage (Lower Cretaceous), La Charce, southeast France". Episodes. 44 (2): 129–150. doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020072. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  3. ^ See Gradstein et al. (2004) for a detailed geologic timescale
  4. ^ Rodríguez-López, Juan Pedro; Wu, Chihua; Vishnivetskaya, Tatiana A.; Murton, Julian B.; Tang, Wenqiang; Ma, Chao (2022-12-26). "Permafrost in the Cretaceous supergreenhouse". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 7946. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.7946R. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35676-6. hdl:10810/60351. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 9792593. PMID 36572668.
  5. ^ Rodríguez-López, Juan Pedro; Liesa, Carlos L.; Luzón, Aránzazu; Muñoz, Arsenio; Mayayo, María J.; Murton, Julian B.; Soria, Ana R. (2023-10-10). "Ice-rafted dropstones at midlatitudes in the Cretaceous of continental Iberia". Geology. 52: 33–38. doi:10.1130/g51725.1. ISSN 0091-7613.
  6. ^ Grasby, Stephen E.; McCune, Gennyne E.; Beauchamp, Benoit; Galloway, Jennifer M. (2017-02-10). "Lower Cretaceous cold snaps led to widespread glendonite occurrences in the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian High Arctic". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 129 (7–8): 771–787. Bibcode:2017GSAB..129..771G. doi:10.1130/b31600.1. ISSN 0016-7606.
  7. ^ Alley, N. F.; Hore, S. B.; Frakes, L. A. (2020-11-16). "Glaciations at high-latitude Southern Australia during the Early Cretaceous". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 67 (8): 1045–1095. Bibcode:2020AuJES..67.1045A. doi:10.1080/08120099.2019.1590457. ISSN 0812-0099.

Literature

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  • Gradstein, F.M.; Ogg, J.G. & Smith, A.G.; (2004): A Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge University Press.
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