Ladinian
Younger Middle Triassic age; Bittner’s Ladin ethnonym arose from a dispute over the ages of Alpine ammonoid beds.
Language and route: International scientific terminology from Alpine ethnonym; Ladin. Ladin-speaking Alpine ethnonym Ladini → German geological ladinisch/Ladinisch → English Ladinian.
Literal gloss: of/from Ladini
The name and its history
Alexander Bittner · 1892
- What does the word literally mean?
- ‘of/from Ladini’, referring to the Ladin-speaking Alpine people.
- What did the original author mean?
- Alexander Bittner proposed Ladinian in 1892 for a South-Alpine interval that did not fit Mojsisovics’s earlier identifications of ammonoid-bearing beds as Norian. The name invokes Ladin-speaking communities rather than an invented Greek root.
- Why was the name needed?
- Competing assignments of South Alpine Buchenstein and Wengen strata to the Hallstatt fauna made correlation between the Mediterranean and Northern Alpine successions confused.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Detailed ammonoid succession and reinterpretation of Hallstatt ages showed that earlier correlations were mistaken; the Bittner term outlasted competing nomenclature.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- The Ladinian is a global Middle Triassic age, with its basal GSSP at Bagolino in Italy. Mojsisovics and collaborators did not simply adopt Bittner’s name in their 1895 proposal.
Further historical context
The name invokes the Ladin-speaking Alpine people. Alexander Bittner proposed Ladinian in 1892 for a South-Alpine interval that did not fit Mojsisovics’s earlier identifications of ammonoid-bearing beds as Norian. The name invokes Ladin-speaking communities rather than an invented Greek root.
Competing assignments of South Alpine Buchenstein and Wengen strata to the Hallstatt fauna made correlation between the Mediterranean and Northern Alpine successions confused. Detailed ammonoid succession and reinterpretation of Hallstatt ages showed that earlier correlations were mistaken; the Bittner term outlasted competing nomenclature.
The Ladinian is a global Middle Triassic age, with its basal GSSP at Bagolino in Italy. Mojsisovics and collaborators did not simply adopt Bittner’s name in their 1895 proposal.
Editorial qualification
The identity and historical self-designation of “Ladini” should not be recast as a precise modern ethnolinguistic boundary.
Related names
Sources
- ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart, 2026/06 — Official current ranks and names; ages are subject to revision
- Brack et al., GSSP for the Ladinian Stage, Bagolino (Episodes) — Historical correction: earlier misidentification of Hallstatt ammonoid ages and Bittner’s Ladinian
- Mojsisovics, Waagen and Diener (1895), Entwurf einer Gliederung der pelagischen Sedimente des Trias-Systems, pp. 1271–1302 — Digitised contemporary 1895 joint proposal; contemporaneous basis, not necessarily first use of each name
- ICS ratified boundary GSSP register — Ratified GSSPs; check status separately from naming history