Ludlow
The epoch of the Silurian interval (Silurian), approximately 426.7–422.7 Ma according to the ICS June 2026 chart.
Language and route: English place-name. English place-name → British geological English. Named after Ludlow, Shropshire, England.
Literal gloss: named for Ludlow town
The name and its history
Roderick Murchison, 1830s; *The Silurian System* (1839) · See attributed dates and cited original / standardisation works; first-use priority qualified where noted
- What does the word literally mean?
- Named for ludlow town. Immediate scientific language-route: English place-name → British geological English. This is a locality-based or geographical term, not a description of a universal geological event.
- What did the original author mean?
- The Ludlow marine strata beneath the Old Red Sandstone in Murchison’s Welsh Borderland succession.
- Why was the name needed?
- Murchison described “Ludlow rocks” in the reference succession below the Old Red Sandstone, helping distinguish younger marine Silurian strata.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Fossils and repeatable outcrops in the Ludlow Anticline informed regional subdivisions and later international stage boundaries.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- The Ludlow Series now includes Gorstian and Ludfordian and has global time significance, even though its historic “Ludlow rocks” are a local lithostratigraphic concept.
Further historical context
*Naming and context.* Murchison described “Ludlow rocks” in the reference succession below the Old Red Sandstone, helping distinguish younger marine Silurian strata.
*Evidence and later scope.* Fossils and repeatable outcrops in the Ludlow Anticline informed regional subdivisions and later international stage boundaries. The Ludlow Series now includes Gorstian and Ludfordian and has global time significance, even though its historic “Ludlow rocks” are a local lithostratigraphic concept.
Editorial qualification
Do not substitute a speculative deeper English toponymic origin for the documented source town.
Related names
Silurian · Llandovery · Wenlock · Pridoli · Rhuddanian · Aeronian · Telychian · Sheinwoodian · Homerian · Gorstian · Ludfordian · Fossil · Lithostratigraphy
Sources
- ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart (June 2026) — Current formal unit, order, rank and numerical age
- British Silurian Stratigraphy, Ludlow Series chapter — Stratigraphic history and original Ludlow mapping
- ICS international GSSPs: Silurian stages and boundary issues — Modern formal references, rank, locations and correlation