Bernician Series

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In geology, Bernician Series was a term proposed by S. P. Woodward in 1856 (Manual of Mollusca, p. 409) for the lower portion of the Carboniferous System, below the Millstone Grit. The name was suggested by that of the ancient province of Bernicia on the Anglo-Scottish borderland. It is practically equivalent to the Dinantian of A. de Lapparent and Munier-Chalmas (1893). In 1875 G. Tate's Calcareous and Carbonaceous groups of the Carboniferous Limestone series of Northumberland were united by Professor Lebour into a single series, to which he applied the name Bernician; but later he speaks of the whole of the Carboniferous rocks of Northumberland and its borders as of the Bernician type, which is the most satisfactory way in which the term may now be used (Report of 1/fe Brit. Sub-committee on Classification and Nomenclature, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 1888). Demetian was the corresponding designation proposed by Woodward for the Upper Carboniferous rocks. The sequence of rocks below the Bernician were referred to as the Tuedian. Because the terms Bernician and Tuedian were established for local purposes they are no longer used in modern stratigraphy.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.