Concepts
Principle of Faunal Succession
Also Known As Law of Faunal Succession
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The observation that fossilized flora and fauna succeed each other vertically in sedimentary rock in a specific, reliable order that can be identified over wide horizontal distances, so strata can be identified and dated by the fossils they contain. Named for the English geologist William Smith, who documented it in the first decade of the 19th century concurrently with Cuvier and Brongniart in France, it joins the law of superposition in fixing the time sequence of sedimentary rocks, and its refined practice is biostratigraphy.
Facts
Origin YearFaunal succession was documented by William Smith in England during the first decade of the 19th century, and concurrently in France by Cuvier with the mineralogist Alexandre Brongniart; no single year marks it, so the value is the decade's midpoint at circa precision. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
With Cuvier, Brongniart applied the principle of faunal succession to the Paris basin strata between 1804 and 1811, independently of William Smith's contemporaneous work in England.
The fossil content of rocks together with the law of superposition helps determine the time sequence of sedimentary rocks.
Together with superposition and original horizontality, the four principles are the classical relative-dating toolkit a geologist applies to a rock face with no instrument at all.
In Discipline
Its refined practice, dating rocks by their fossils, is biostratigraphy.
Proposed By
Smith documented faunal succession in England during the first decade of the 19th century.
Sources
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