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The Mammal Paleogene zones or MP zones are a system of biostratigraphiczones in the stratigraphic record used to correlate mammal-bearing fossil localities of the Paleogene period of Europe. It consists of thirty consecutive zones (numbered MP 1 through MP 30; MN 8 and 9 have been joined into MN 8 + 9 zone; and MP 17 zone is split into two zones - MP 17A and MP 17B zone) defined through reference faunas, well-known sites that other localities can be correlated with. MP 1 is the earliest zone, and MP 30 is the most recent. The Grande Coupure extinction and faunal turnover event marks the boundary between MP 20 and MP 21, the post-Grande Coupure faunas occurring by MP 21 onward. The MP zones are complementary with the MN zones in the Neogene.
These zones were proposed at the Congress in Mainz held in 1987 to help paleontologists provide more specific reference points to evolutionary events in Europe, but are used by paleontologists on other continents as well.
^ Norbert Schmidt-Kittler (ed.) "International symposium on mammalian biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the European Paleogene, Mainz, February 18th-21st 1987." Münchner geowiss. Abh., 10, 1-311.
