biochronologyn.
/ˌbʌɪəʊkrəˈnɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌbaɪoʊˌkrəˈnɑlədʒi/ Chiefly Palaeontology.
The use of biological evidence to deduce the order in which past events occurred; esp. the determination of the sequence in which groups of prehistoric organisms appeared and became extinct; the branch of science concerned with this. Also: a sequence of events determined by such methods. Cf. geochronology n. 2
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > reckoning of time > chronology > [noun] > branches of chronology
synchronology1736
geochronology1893
dendrochronology1928
biochronology1934
geochronometry1953
1934 Geografiska Annaler 16 9 An exact chronology, for which I proposed..the denomination geochronology in distinction from..different kinds of biochronology.
1966 Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol. 2 246 The atrypid brachiopods have not been particularly useful in biochronology in the past.
1988 Biol. Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 35 39 We can now resolve the biochronology of Tertiary mammals to about 1 Myr or less.
1992 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 13 Oct. (Education section) 16 The Russian guests, who have formidable reputations in the fields of palaeontology and biochronology, will be seeing a living reef for the first time.
2001 S. G. Lucas Chinese Fossil Vertebr. ix. 168 The psittacosaurs were widespread and reasonably common dinosaurs... Their temporal distribution also is of significance to vertebrate biochronology.
Derivatives
biochronoˈlogic adj. of or relating to biochronology.
ΚΠ
1935 Geografiska Annaler 17 528 A. E. Douglass already has given..a good support to prehistory, by his remarkable biochronologic datings of the pueblo villages.
2007 Marine Micropaleontol. 65 166/1 We used the absolute abundance patterns of nannofossil marker to determine the FO [= first occurrence] and LO [= last occurrence] of index species. This biochronologic method has been proved to be much more efficient.
biochronoˈlogical adj. = biochronologic adj.
ΚΠ
1958 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 69 99 The biochronological standard, based for each period on biostratigraphically important groups of fossils.
2003 W. Roebroeks in M. Rockman & J. Steele Colonization Unfamiliar Landscapes vi. 101 In view of..the imprecision of biochronological methods, for the time being it is probably best to..develop scenarios that do not depend on fine chronological positioning.
biochronoˈlogically adv. as regards biochronology; by means of biochronology.
ΚΠ
1935 Geografiska Annaler 17 501 (title) Prehistoric bulwark in Gotland biochronologically dated.
2001 S. G. Lucas Chinese Fossil Vertebr. vii. 108 More significant biochronologically is the presence of the genus Kannemeyeria in the form of two species.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1934