On the Permian System as developed in Russia and other Parts of Europe

Abstract

On the part of his associates, M. de Verneuil and Count Keyserling, and himself, Mr. Murchison has previously explained in the Proceedings of the Geol. Soc. the nature of the various deposits which constitute the subsoil of European Russia. As in all other parts of the world which have been adequately examined, the Silurian rocks are those which contain the earliest forms of animal life, and in Russia they are overlaid by Devonian and carboniferous deposits, each of which is there singularly well defined by its organic remains and regular superposition. In common with many other geologists, Mr. Murchison was formerly of opinion that the above-mentioned three systems constituted the whole Palæozoic series, but the examination of Russia and Germany has led him to include also therein the next group in ascending order, or that to which he had assigned the name of Permian. When two or more conterminous formations are shown to have a community of fossils, it has recently been deemed essential to group them under one name; and following the practice of assigning to any such newly classed group a geographical name derived from the region where the strata are best developed, the term “Permian” was employed. This system was first proposed to embrace the deposits known in Germany as the Rothe-todteliegende, Zechstein, Kupferschiefer, &c., and in England as Lower New Red Sandstone, Magnesian limestone, &c.