MISSISSIPPIAN

Formerly used in North America to define a period of geological time, or elsewhere a subperiod of the carboniferous, ‘Mississippian’ is now agreed upon to define the earlier epoch of the Carboniferous period (see pennsylvanian). The Mississippian lasted from 359 to 318 million years ago and does not exactly correspond with the former use of “Early Carboniferous” in Europe. Marine transgressions early in the Mississippian led to flooding of continental margins by continental shelf seas, represented by extensive developments of marine limestone in northern Europe and North America (e.g. the ‘Carboniferous Limestone’ of Britain).

[See alsogeological timescale]