For the first time since 1891, the geologic timescale is getting a new period. In March the International Union of Geological Scientists added the Ediacaran Period to the Precambrian Eon, an enormous ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. The guardians of the world’s official geological timescale have firmly rejected a ...

The Anthropocene is the name of a proposed new geological time period (probably an epoch) that may soon enter the official Geologic Time Scale. The Anthropocene is defined by the human influence on ...

The next step to improve the Geological Time Scale is to provide an astronomical calibration of the Paleogene period that covers the past 23-65.5 Myr. This will require both an extension of ...

Humans have altered the planet so much that we’ve created a new geological age–the Anthropocene. Millennia from now, this is how scientists will learn about what we did. Nuclear particles, changes in ...

Relations thaw as opposing sides vote on what to call latest geological period. London After more than 150 years of conflict, geologists have taken a small step towards agreeing what to call the time ...

Every other Friday, the Outside/In team answers a listener question about the natural world. This week’s question comes from Emily in Washington, DC. Crawford Lake in Milton, Ontario. The answer to ...

Jurassic, Pleistocene, Precambrian. The named times in Earth's history might inspire mental images of dinosaurs, trilobites or other enigmatic animals unlike anything in our modern world. Labels like ...

Jurassic, Pleistocene, Precambrian. The named times in Earth’s history might inspire mental images of dinosaurs, trilobites, or other enigmatic animals unlike anything in our modern world. Labels like ...

According to a strict interpretation of Scripture, the Earth is approximately 6,000 years old (give or take a few years). Given what we know about our planet’s geological past, it’s only fitting that ...