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New Epoch in History of the Earth

Posted by michael on from the not-taught-in-kansas dept.

exp(pi*sqrt(163)) writes "According to the BBC News, for the first time in over a century geologists have decided to add a new name for a period in the timeline of the planet earth. From now on, the time from 600 million years ago to 542 million years ago is to be known as the Ediacarian Period. Geologists now see this period, just before the first shelled animals appeared, as important enough to deserve recognition in its own right. This will also help to reduce the confusion caused by the myriad of names that have been used for this period up to now."

6 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Get the name of the period right! by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's Ediacaran, not Ediacarian.

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    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
    1. Re:Get the name of the period right! by jc42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's Ediacaran, ...

      Yup, and it's not exactly a new term. The only real change here is deciding to no longer call that period "pre-Cambrian". 50 years ago, not enough was known about things that old to justify declaring an official period name. But now we know a lot more, and there is a rough concensus on where the border belongs, so promoting "Ediacaran" to the top level now makes sense.

      The major book on the early Cambrian is probably still Stephen Jay Gould's "Wonderful Life", though a few minor points in that book have been superseded in the 15 years since it was published. Is there a comparable tome on the Ediacaran fossils? There were some truly alien-looking creatures then, not very similar to anything living on Earth today.

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      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  2. Other names for this period by robert0122 · · Score: 5, Funny
    This will also help to reduce the confusion caused by the myriad of names that have been used for this period up to now."

    Here in Texas, we always called it "the other day".

  3. simple by pizza_milkshake · · Score: 4, Funny

    everything is all cleared up thanks to the Edicar... Edictacar... Edicia... ah, forget it.

  4. Re:Correction to Re:Call Burt Gummer by WhiteBandit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because many geologic eras/epochs/etc are usually named for type localities. In this case, the type locality for the Ediacaran is the Ediacara Hills.

    According to Wikipedia, the Cambria is the Roman name of Wales, where rocks of Cambrian age exist and were studied.

    But then again, I could be completely wrong since all languages have their nuances. Take for example "Canada/Canadians" ;)

    (Note, I really do love my Canadian friends. It is just a funny page. :)

  5. Gould's Wonderful Life by Latent+Heat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The big point of "Wonderful Life" is that the Burgess fossils were first shoehorned into existing phyla by Walcott, and that he, S. J. Gould, explained that the Burgess had all kinds of bizarre phyla that don't exist anymore, which means we should count ourselves lucky that we don't have eyes on our butts and spikes sticking out of our foreheads.

    Story I heard was that "Wonderful Life" was dismissed among people in the know as a form of peer-review bypassed grandstanding. A lot of what Gould had to say is controversial. This is not to say that people can't take controversial or off-the-wall theories to the popular press (Wolfram's New Physics), but I had gotten the mistaken impression that "Wonderful Life" represented main-stream thinking on the subject, which it does not.