TheBramertonian Stage is the name for an earlyPleistocene biostratigraphic stage of geological history theBritish Isles. It precedes thePre-Pastonian Stage (Baventian Stage). It derives its name fromBramerton Pits inNorfolk, where the deposits can be found on the surface. The exact timing of the beginning and end of the Bramertonian Stage is currently unknown. It is only known that it is equivalent to the Tiglian C1-4b Stage of Europe and earlyPre-Illinoian Stage of North America. It lies somewhere in time between Marine Oxygen Isotope stages 65 to 95 and somewhere between 1.816 and 2.427Ma (million years ago).[1][2][3][4] The Bramertonian is correlated with the Antian stage identified from pollen assemblages in the Ludham borehole.[5][6]
During this stage, the climate was temperate with evidence for mixedoak forest in southern England and the arrival ofhemlock. Evidence fromEast Anglia suggests sea levels were higher than they are today.
^West, RG (1962).Vegetational history of the Early Pleistocene of the Royal Society Borehole at Ludham, Norfolk. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B155, pp.437-453
^Gibbard, PL, Zalasiewicz, JA & Mathers, SJ (1998).Stratigraphy of the marine Plio-Pleistocene crag deposits of East Anglia. In: van Kolfschoten, T & Gibbard, PL (eds).The Dawn of the Quaternary - proceedings of the SEQS-EuroMam Symposium : Kerkrade, 16-21 June 1996. Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience, 1998.ISBN9072869613
