Editorial preface to special issue: From rock to time: evolutionary lineages and the calibration of the Chronostratigraphic Scale

The International Chronostratigraphic Chart has been under consideration and construction for more than two hundred years. The integration of multidisciplinary, high-resolution studies, and the correlation of pervasive and recognizable markers, have helped develop and continuously update the chart providing a standardized and global language for stratigraphers. STRATI (International Congress on Stratigraphy) is the main scientific meeting of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) that takes place every four years and is dedicated to all topics associated with improving and updating chronostratigraphy and geochronology. We note that stratigraphical studies are undertaken by specialists who, primarily, focus on specific Phanerozoic systems, rarely venturing beyond the confines of their adopted time slice. Acknowledging this potential weakness, STRATI attempts to remove the intellectual and geological boundaries (disciplinary, taxonomic and temporal), and engage the wider community to define, discuss, combine and compare the potential and role of stratigraphy today in fine tuning the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, especially its correlation and geochronometry. In this Virtual Special Issue (VSI), we present some of the findings of STRATI2023 held in Lille, France (July 11st-13rd 2023) and attended by 285 participants from over 40 countries. Our intention is to collect the most significant contributions arising from this meeting, complemented by specific research articles in order to guarantee a full coverage of the fields of stratigraphy. We demonstrate that refined applied stratigraphy is now approached through a multiproxy perspective, as highlighted in most studies captured here. The VSI goes further by reexamining fundamental concepts in stratigraphy together with the definition of marine bioevents and the role of vertebrates in biostratigraphy. More broadly, the VSI addresses a range of current topics within stratigraphy to highlight the essential role of modern stratigraphical practice as a prerequisite for all future research in palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology and palaeoecology.