The Artinskian is named after the goniatite grits of Artinsk which was introduced by Roderick Murchison, Édouard de Verneuil and count Alexander von Keyserling in their The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains (1845).[4] The grits of Artinsk, in turn, get its name from the Artinsky District with center in the Russian smalltown of Arti (formerly Artinsk zavod), situated in the middle Urals, about 170 km southwest of Yekaterinburg. The stage was introduced into scientific literature by Alexander Karpinsky in 1874.[5]
U-Pb radiometric dating found that the base of the Artinskian was approximately 290.1 million years old (Ma), based on the position of the rock layer at the Dal'ny Tulkas roadcut containing the FAD of S. whitei relative to three precisely dated ash beds surrounding it.[7] Earlier radiometric reported a much younger age of 280.3 Ma for the Sakmarian-Artinskian boundary.
Top of the Artinskian
The top of the Artinskian (and the base of the Kungurian) is defined as the place in the stratigraphic record where fossils of conodonts Neostreptognathodus pnevi and Neostreptognathodus exculptus first appear.[5] The proposed GSSP candidate — the Mechetlino section (Southern Urals).[8]
Artinskian Warming Event
Around 287 million years ago occurred an interval of pronounced warming known as the Artinskian Warming Event (AWE). This period of global warming accelerated the deglaciation that had been occurring since the Sakmarian following the end of the most intense glacial phase of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.[9] In addition, it is also associated with significant global drying, which had gradually been occurring since the Carboniferous-Permian boundary.[10][11] Major aridification during the AWE is evidenced by a positive δ18O excursion observed in brachiopodfossils,[12] with arid and semi-arid conditions expanding across much of Pangaea as glaciers receded to refugia in the polar regions of Gondwana.[9]
