Dinantian is the name of a

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

from the

Lower Carboniferous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

system in Europe. It can stand for a series of rocks in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

or the time span in which they were deposited. The Dinantian is equal to the lower part of the Mississippian series in the international

geologic timescale The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochr ...

of the ICS. The Dinantian is named for the Belgian city of Dinant where strata of this age occur. The name is still used among European geologists. Earlier terms for the Dinantian were Bernician from the Anglo-Scottish borderland, and Avonian (divided into upper (Kidwellian) and lower (Clevedonian) substages) from

Kidwelly Kidwelly ( cy, Cydweli) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, approximately northwest of the most populous town in the county, Llanelli. In the 2001 census the community of Kidwelly returned a population of 3,289, inc ...

on the Welsh and

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is an English seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 ...

on the English sides of the Bristol Channel.

References

{{Geological history, p, p, state=collapsed Mississippian geochronology Carboniferous Europe Stratigraphy of Europe Carboniferous Ireland Carboniferous Wales Carboniferous United Kingdom Dinant Carboniferous geochronology