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Geological timescale




Nature 429: 124-125. Geology: Time lords.

This News Feature mentions the first fully revised geological timescale for 15 years, which will be published in Summer (Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G. & Smith, A. G. (Eds) A Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge Univ. Press, in press). The new timescale, which has international consensus, and which used 'global standard stratotype-section and points' (GSSPs), or 'golden spikes'.

The dates for the beginnings of each period, for the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras:

Cambrian 542.0 mya
Ordovician 488.3
Silurian 443.7
Devonian 416.0
Carboniferous 359.2
Permian 299.0
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Triassic 251.0
Jurassic 199.6
Cretaceous 145.5
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Palaeogene 65.5
Neogene 23.03
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Tim

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