The Moscovian is, in the ICS geologic timescale, a stage or age in the Pennsylvanian, the youngest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Moscovian age lasted from to Mya,Gradstein, F.M.; Ogg, J.G. & Smith, A.G.; 2004: A Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge University Press is preceded by the Bashkirian and is followed by the Kasimovian. The Moscovian overlaps with the European regional Westphalian stage and the North American Atokan and Desmoinesian stages.
Name and definition The Moscovian Stage was introduced by Sergei Nikitin (1851–1909) in 1890, using brachiopods in the Moscow Basin of European Russia. Nikitin named the stage after Moscow, then a major city and now the capital of Russia.
The base of the Moscovian is close to the first appearances of the conodonts Declinognathodus donetzianus and Idiognathoides postsulcatus*; 1999: Bashkirian conodonts of the Donets Basin, Ukraine. Scr. Geol. 119, pp 1–115 . or otherwise the fusulinid Aljutovella aljutovica.*; 1986: Zonal fusulinid scale of the Moscovian Stage based on a revision of the type sections of intrastage subdivisions, Vopr. Mikropaleontol Because the fusulinid species are regionally different, they can not be used for worldwide correlation. A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Moscovian Stage has yet to be defined (2008). A proposal is to use the first appearance of the conodont Diplognathodus ellesmerensis, but since the species is rare and its evolution relatively unknown, it has not been accepted yet. a report by the taskforce to establish a Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary (Groves et al. (2008))
The top of the Moscovian (base of the Kasimovian) is at the base of the fusulinid biozone of Obsoletes obsoletes and Protriticites pseudomontiparus, or with the first appearance of the ammonite genus Parashumardites.
Subdivisions In European Russia and Eastern Europe, where the stage was first recognized, the Moscovian is subdivided into four regional substages: Vereiskian, Kashirskian, Podolskian, and Myachkovskian, named after towns near Moscow (Vereya, Kashira, Podolsk, and Myachkovo).
The Moscovian can biostratigraphically be divided into five conodont biozones: Neognathodus roundyi and Streptognathodus cancellosus Zone Neognathodus medexultimus and Streptognathodus concinnus Zone Streptognathodus dissectus Zone Neognathodus uralicus Zone Declinognathodus donetzianus Zone
References
External links
Carboniferous timescale at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy Moscovian, Geowhen Database