Hettangian
First Jurassic age, named for Hettange-Grande to separate beds once placed within a broader Sinemurian.
Language and route: International scientific terminology from French place-name. French place-name place-name Hettange → international scientific stage-name Hettangian (English); older place-name origin not inferred.
Literal gloss: of/from Hettange
The name and its history
Eugène Renevier · 1864
- What does the word literally mean?
- ‘of/from Hettange’, referring to Hettange-Grande in Moselle, France.
- What did the original author mean?
- Eugène Renevier (1864) separated the lowest interval from d’Orbigny’s broad Sinemurian. He preferred a geographically founded stage-name to the ambiguous regional term Infralias.
- Why was the name needed?
- Workers disagreed about strata between uppermost Triassic Rhaetian beds and the ammonite-bearing lower Lias, which were inadequately served by the older Sinemurian and Infralias usages.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Fossil assemblages, succession of the Hettange sandstone and comparisons with British and Alpine Lias strata motivated recognition of a distinct first Jurassic stage.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- The beginning of the Jurassic/Hettangian is now defined at Kuhjoch in Austria by the first occurrence of Psiloceras spelae tirolicum, not at Hettange-Grande.
Further historical context
The name invokes Hettange-Grande in Moselle, France. Eugène Renevier (1864) separated the lowest interval from d’Orbigny’s broad Sinemurian. He preferred a geographically founded stage-name to the ambiguous regional term Infralias.
Workers disagreed about strata between uppermost Triassic Rhaetian beds and the ammonite-bearing lower Lias, which were inadequately served by the older Sinemurian and Infralias usages. Fossil assemblages, succession of the Hettange sandstone and comparisons with British and Alpine Lias strata motivated recognition of a distinct first Jurassic stage.
The beginning of the Jurassic/Hettangian is now defined at Kuhjoch in Austria by the first occurrence of Psiloceras spelae tirolicum, not at Hettange-Grande.
Editorial qualification
Historical “Infralias” was used in multiple senses; never imply that the 1864 Hettangian is coextensive with every usage of Infralias.
Related names
Jurassic · Sinemurian · Rhaetian · Lias
Sources
- ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart, 2026/06 — Official current ranks and names; ages are subject to revision
- K. N. Page, British Lower Jurassic stratigraphy: an introduction (GCR) — Authoritative history of d’Orbigny, Oppel, Renevier and fossil zonation
- P. Fauré, Le Jurassique: divisions et étages, histoire de la géologie — French historiographical account; some first-year claims conflict with other accounts
- ICS Subcommission on Jurassic Stratigraphy, stage working groups — Individual stage boundary status and GSSP locations