Fuddland
Geological time gets a new period:
Geologists have added a new period to their official calendar of Earth’s history - the first in 120 years.
The Ediacaran Period covers some 50 million years of ancient time on our planet from 600 million years ago to about 542 million years ago.
[…]
The decision was taken after a fifteen-year long period of consideration by expert geologists.
Bloody hell, even their decisions could almost be measured in geological time.
Comments
Gordon | 2004 / 05 / 20 – 12:20
It’ll never catch on… I mean “Ediacaran Park” just AIN’T marketable…
David | 2004 / 05 / 20 – 12:23
Re #1: I dunno — “weird, mesh-like creatures of uncertain affinity” sound pretty scary to me!
bsag | 2004 / 05 / 22 – 19:33
I may be hallucinating, but I’m sure I remember hearing the term bandied about several years ago. Perhaps it’s been in unofficial use for a while. You can’t rush geological periods, you know. Actually, when I read about this, my first thought was, “Really? Only 15 years?” I’ve experienced academic decision making, and this seemed like unseemly haste in comparison.
David | 2004 / 05 / 22 – 20:17
Re #3: I’m sure it has been used unofficially for a few years, and it seems like not everyone is happy about the name:
…Russian geologists are likely to continue to call the period by its alternative name: the Vendian.
In 1952, the Russian geologist Boris Sokolov coined the term Vendian for a system of sedimentary rocks in the former Soviet Union.
As for the length of time it took to make the decision, it looks like I’m just going to be branded an impetuous youngster if I ever try and push too quickly for new terminology to be adopted. [I’m still working on getting the medical community to use ‘crelbow’ to refer to the inner elbow.] ;)
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