TRIASSIC EPIGYMNITES OF HALLSTATT

Epigymnites arthaberi (MOJS.) and Epigymnites moelleri (MOJS.) Photo: Andreas

It was the Austrian geologist, Alexander Bittner, a contemporary of Mojsisovics, who introduced the term Ladinian into literature. 

The name Ladinian was chosen by Bittner after the Ladinian folk of the Southern Alps/Dolomites. At the time, this area was part of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy with its capital in Vienna. The “Vienna school” of thinking dominated the palaeontology institutions there at the time.

Bittner's introduction of the name Ladinian arose from his recognition of many of the false assumptions of Mojsisovics — assumptions which led to misguided views regarding the ammonoid zones within the Norian timescale well into the 20th century. It was the lovely Tim Tozer who took the time to correct these long lasting errors through his work teasing out the North American Triassic timescale. Tozer used North American, mainly Canadian Triassic ammonoid locations as the basis for his work. Once complete, a correlation with the European Triassic timescale was finally realized.