In the

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 geochron ...

, the Wuchiapingian or Wujiapingian (from in the Liangshan area of

Hanzhong Hanzhong ( zh, s= , t= , l=middle of the Han River (Hubei), Han River; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in Southern Shaanxi, the southwest of Shaanxi, Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gans ...

Shaanxi Province Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi ...

) is an

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone has been alive or something has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

or stage of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

. It is also the lower or earlier of two subdivisions of the

Lopingian The Lopingian is the uppermost series/last epoch of the Permian. It is the last epoch of the Paleozoic. The Lopingian was preceded by the Guadalupian and followed by the Early Triassic. The Lopingian is often synonymous with the informal te ...

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 b ...

or Series. The Wuchiapingian spans the time between and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Capitanian and followed by the Changhsingian. Regional stages with which the Wuchiapingian is coeval or overlaps include the Djulfian or Dzhulfian, Longtanian, Rustlerian, Saladoan, and Castilian.

Stratigraphic definitions

The Wuchiapingian was first used in 1962, when the Lopingian Series of southwestern China was divided in the Changhsingian and Wuchiapingian Formations. In 1973 the Wuchiapingian was first used as a chronostratigraphic unit (i.e. a stage, as opposed to a formation, which is a lithostratigraphic unit). The base of the Wuchiapingian Stage is defined as the place in the stratigraphic record where the

conodont Conodonts, are an extinct group of marine jawless vertebrates belonging to the class Conodonta (from Ancient Greek κῶνος (''kōnos''), meaning " cone", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth"). They are primarily known from their hard ...

species ''

Clarkina ''Clarkina'' is an extinct genus of conodonts. It is considered to be an offshore, outer shelf or basinal, deep-water taxon. The genus name is a tribute to David Leigh Clark. Synonyms ''Clarkina'' Soodan 1975 is a junior synonym for the pre ...

postbitteri postbitteri'' first appears. A global reference profile for this boundary (a

GSSP A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), sometimes referred to as a golden spike, is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. ...

) is located near

Laibin Laibin ( zh, s=来宾市, t=來賓市, p=Láibīn, Zhuang: Laizbinh) is a prefecture-level city in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. History Laibin is an ancient town with more than 2000 years of history. The area ...

in the Chinese province of Guangxi. The top of the Wuchiapingian (the base of the Changhsingian) is at the first appearance of

species ''

wangi''. The Wuchiapingian contains two

ammonoid Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

biozone In biostratigraphy, biostratigraphic units or biozones are intervals of geological strata that are defined on the basis of their characteristic fossil taxon, taxa, as opposed to a Lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic unit which is defined by the ...

s: that of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Araxoceras ''Araxoceras'' is an extinct genus of ceratitid ammonites that lived in the Late Permian marine environments of Iran, South China and Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of ...

'' and that of the genera '' Roadoceras'' and ''

Doulingoceras ''Doulingoceras'' is a genus of Ammonoidea, ammonoid within the Ceratitida, ceratitid order, found in China, that lived during the Late Permian during the time span from about 260.5 to 254 million years ago. The genus is included in the family Pa ...

''.

Wuchiapingian life

An extinction pulse occurred during the Wuchiapingian; faunas were recovering when another larger extinction pulse, the

Permian–Triassic extinction event The Permian–Triassic extinction event (also known as the P–T extinction event, the Late Permian extinction event, the Latest Permian extinction event, the End-Permian extinction event, and colloquially as the Great Dying,) was an extinction ...

devastated life. A relatively diverse fish fauna is known from the coeval

Kupferschiefer The Kupferschiefer (German for Copper Shale, Copper Schist or Copper Slate) or Kupfermergel (Copper Marl), (T1 or Z1) is an extensive and remarkable sedimentary unit in Central Europe. The relatively monotonous succession is typically and maximu ...

( Werra Formation, Germany), Marl Slate Formation (England) and

Ravnefjeld Formation The Ravnefjeld Formation is a geologic formation in Greenland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Greenland This is a list of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in ...

(Greenland), including, among others, the following

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

: ''

Acentrophorus ''Acentrophorus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric freshwater and marine ray-finned fish from the Roadian (Guadalupian/Middle Permian) to the Wuchiapingian (Lopingian/late Permian) of England (Marl Slate), Germany (Kupferschiefer), Italy (Val G ...

'', '' Acropholis'', '' Boreolepis'', ''

Coelacanthus ''Coelacanthus'', from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (''koîlos''), meaning "hollow", and ἄκανθα (''ákantha''), meaning "spine", is a genus of extinct marine coelacanths known from the late Permian period (geology), period. It was the first ...

'', ''

Dorypterus ''Dorypterus'' is a small, extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It lived during the Wuchiapingian stage of the late Permian epoch in what is now Germany (Kupferschiefer) and England (Marl Slate). Indeterminate remains are known fr ...

'', ''

Janassa ''Janassa'' is an extinct genus of petalodont cartilaginous fish that lived in marine environments in what is now central United States of America and Europe during the Carboniferous and upper Permian. It is known from teeth and a few poorly ...

'', ''

Menaspis ''Menaspis'' is an extinct genus of holocephalian cartilaginous fish from the Permian period (Wuchiapingian In the geologic timescale, the Wuchiapingian or Wujiapingian (from in the Liangshan area of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province ) is an age ...

'', ''

Palaeoniscum ''Palaeoniscum'' (from , 'ancient' and 'cod-fish' or 'woodlouse') is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Guadalupian, Middle to Lopingian, Late Permian period (Guadalupian-Lopingian) of England, Germany, Turkey, North America and Gre ...

'', '' Platysomus'', ''

Pygopterus ''Pygopterus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Wuchiapingian to Olenekian ages (late Permian to Early Triassic epochs) in what is now England, Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt), Greenland and Svalbard ...

'' and '' Wodnika''. The Hambast Formation of Iran yielded

chondrichthyan Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class (biology), class of jawed fish that contains the cartilaginous fish or chondrichthyans, which all have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fish'', which ...

faunas of Wuchiapingian to Changhsingian

. The Wuchiapingian layers produced teeth of the eugeneodontid '' Bobbodus''.

Notable formations

* Hambast Formation (

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

) * Marl Slate Formation (

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) *

Naobaogou Formation The Naobaogou Formation is a geological formation in the Daqing Mountains of China. It is likely of Lopingian (Late Permian) age. It consists of three rhythms of sediment, labeled members I-III primarily of purple siltstone, but each with a thick ...

(

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, China) *

(

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

) *

Sunjiagou Formation The Sunjiagou Formation is a geological formation in Shanxi, China. It is of Lopingian age. The lower and middle parts of the formation consists of intensely bioturbated fine grained sandstones and thinly interbedded mudstones, deposited in a sh ...

(

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

, China) * ''Tropidostoma'' Assemblage Zone* (South Africa) * Werra Formation (

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

)

References

External links

GeoWhen Database - Wuchiapingian

Upper Paleozoic stratigraphic chart
at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS {{Geological history, p, p Permian geochronology . Lopingian Hanzhong Paleontology in Shaanxi Permian Asia