Reasons for a name

The Priabonian stage made its appearance in the geological literture in 1893, by the pen of Ernest Munier-Chalmas and Albert de Lapparent, authors of a general stratigraphic overview from Archean to Neogene. The stage was named after the small hamlet of Priabona in the community of Monte di Malo, in the Veneto region of northern Italy, where Munier-Chalmas had started collecting fossils during his doctoral studies.

Priabona di Monte di Malo, in Veneto (Northeastern Italy).
Priabona di Monte di Malo, in Veneto (Northeastern Italy).
Charles-Philippe-Ernest Munier-Chalmas
Charles-Philippe-Ernest Munier-Chalmas
Ernest Munier-Chalmas started as a preparator of fossils in the geological laboratory directed by Hedmond Hébert, the disciple of Elie de Beaumont and d’Omalius d’Halloy who held the first chair of geology of France, at the Sorbonne, and the man who brought stratigraphy in the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France. Hébert guided Munier-Chalmas through the years of his formation, until he became one of the skilliest paleontologists and stratigraphers of France, and himself professor at the geology chair, going thorugh a road not devoid of obstacles.
He made intersting geological observations on the Vicentin, and studied the rocks and fossils that he had collected. But failed to describe them: Munier had acquired an unvincible inappetence for the pen, a loathing for white paper. We owe to the tenacity and devotion of his students if he overcame this formidable obstacle. Everyone began to work. I leave you to imagine that the realisation if this thesis was not without effort nor clamour!Alfred Lacroix, 1928
Munier-Chalmas devoted his life to refining the stratigraphy of intervals such as the Cretaceous and Tertiary, achieving a widespread notoriety among his peers at the Geological Society of France, of which he was president in 1891. Among them was Albert de Lapparent, an engineer who had started, like Hébert, as a disciple of Elie de Beaumont. Taking part in the realisation of the first geological map of France, Lapparent had authored a Traité de Geologie in 1883 when, in the early years of 1890s undertook with Munier-Chalmas the difficult task of revising known stratigraphic units, as to cover the whole geologic history of the world, from the Archean to the Neogene System. They reaffirmed the necessity to name stages after localities and type areas, not fossils, underlining that firm results could be achieved only after a long and hard transnational cooperation.
Albert-Auguste Cochon de Lapparent
Albert-Auguste Cochon de Lapparent
No one can doubt of the great advantages offered by the adoption of uniform stratigraphical scale. The stablishment of such scale was the dream pursuited from 1878 to 1888 by the Geological Congress, that has spent much good will towards this task. (…) Regarding the Tertiary, its subdivision is founded both upon the great changes of the marine faunas, put in relationship with the corresponding orogenic movements, and the evolution of mammals.Munier-Chalmas & de Lapparent, 1893, p. 438-439.
The Priabonian is the Mediterranean equivalent of the Ludian of Northern Europe. The upper Eocene is well developped in the Colli Berrici, at Priabona (Italy), Biarritz (Basses Pyrénées), and at the Diablerets (Alpes). In both southern and northern regions it is characterised from special forms associated with Eocene and Oligocene species.Munier-Chalmas & de Lapparent, 1893, p. 479.
The Priabonian remains today an elusive chronostratigraphic unit (Agnini et al., 2011). Learn more Agnini C., Fornaciari E., Giusberti L., Grandesso P., Lanci L., Luciani V., Muttoni G., Pa?like H., Rio, D., Spofforth D.J.A. & Stefani C. (2011). Integrated biomagnetostratigraphy of the Alano section (NE Italy): A proposal for defining the middle-late Eocene boundary. Geological Society of America Bulletin 123, 841-872. Lacroix A. (1928). Notice historique sur le troisième fauteuil de la section de minéralogie: séance publique annuelle du lundi 17 décembre. Institut de France, Académie des sciences, Gauthier-Villars et Cie , Paris. Munier-Chalmas E. & de Lapparent A. (1893). Note sur la nomenclature des terrains sédimentaires. Bulletin de la Societé Géologique de France 3, 438-488. External links Original paper at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. State of the art in “A Geologic Time Scale 2004“. Wikipedia entry for “Priabonian”. Magic Veneto at Priabona.