Lutetian Stage

Lutetian Stage 

(from “Lutetia,” the Latin name for Paris), one of the stages of the Middle Paleogene system (period) in Western Europe. It was identified in 1883 by the French geologist A. Lapparant in the vicinity of Paris. The type section is represented by “coarse limestones” that contain bivalves and nummulites. Deposits of the Lutetian stage are widespread in Western Europe, where they correspond to a time of extensive transgressions by the sea. In the USSR the term “Lutetian stage” is not ordinarily used; the Simferopol’ stage and the bottom strata of the Bodrak stage in the Crimea correspond to this subdivision. Analogues of the Lutetian stage are also found in the Caucasus, Turkmenia, Kazakhstan, and Western Siberia, where they are represented by limestones, marls, and clays with numerous foraminifera.