The Tyrrhenian Stage is the last

faunal stage In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by conven ...

of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It runs from 0.26 million (260,000) to 0.01143 million (11,430) years ago.GeoWhen Database: Tyrrhenian European Stage
/ref> It overlaps with the end of the

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

and all of the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...

. The time period of the Tyrrhenian Stage is the same as that of the Senegalese fauna assemblage.Hearty, P.J. and Pra, G. Dai (2003) "Comment on: "The age of Late Pleistocene shorelines and tectonic activity of Taranto area, southern Italy" by G. Bellouomini, M. Caldara, C. Casini, M. Cerasoli, L. Manfra, G. Mastrronuzzi, G. Palmentola, P. Sanso, P. Tuccimei, and P.L. Vesica" ''Quaternary Science Reviews'' 22: pp. 2363-2367

Definition

The end of the Tyrrhenian is defined as exactly 10,000

Carbon-14 Carbon-14, C-14, C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

years before the present (0.01143 +/- 0.00013 mya), which is near to the end of the

Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the ...

cold spell.

History of the definition

The Tyrrhenian Stage was first defined in 1914 by

Arturo Issel Arturo Issel (Genoa April 11, 1842 – Genoa November 27, 1922) was an Italian geologist, palaeontologist, malacologist and archaeologist, born in Genoa. He is noted for first defining the Tyrrhenian Stage in 1914. Issel was also renowned at the ...

to describe the

stratigraphic section A stratigraphic section is a sequence of layers of rocks in the order they were deposited. It is based on the principle of original horizontality, which states that layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally under the action of ...

containing ''

Strombus ''Strombus'' is a genus of medium to large sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the family (biology), family Strombidae, which comprises the true conchs and their immediate relatives. The genus ''Strombus'' was named by Swedi ...

'' fossils originally investigated by Gignoux. ''Strombus bubonius'' was the leading

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

References

{{Quaternary Footer Pleistocene life Middle Pleistocene Late Pleistocene Quaternary animals of Europe Prehistoric Italy

Definition

History of the definition

See also

References