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Tremadocian Stage
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Ordovician System
Ordovician System The Ordovician Period began 485.4 million years ago and ended 443.8 million years ago.

Tremadocian Stage

stratigraphy
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Also known as: Tremadoc Series
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Article History

Tremadocian Stage, lowermost of the two standard worldwide divisions of the Lower Ordovician Series and lowest of the seven stages within the Ordovician System. It encompasses all rocks formed during the Tremadocian Age, which spanned the interval between 485.4 million and 477.7 million years ago.

The name of this stage is derived from Tremadog, a town in North Wales; the characteristics of the stage are based on fossils found in the Tremadoc Slates. Although most non-British geologists have regarded the Tremadocian as the lowermost stage of the Ordovician System, it has been only since 1991 that the British have done so. The base of the Tremadocian Stage in Britain has been defined as the first occurrence of the graptolite Rhabdinopora flabelliformis socialis at Bryn-llin-fawr, North Wales. Difficulties in recognizing this graptolite globally have led an international panel to recommend defining the base of the Tremadocian at the first appearance of the conodont Iapetognathus fluctivagus. The Tremadocian Stage overlies Stage 10 of the Cambrian Period and underlies the Floian Stage of the Lower Ordovician Series.

This article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty.