Azoic Age

Azoic Age, Azoic Era, Azoic Period and Azoic Eon were terms used before 1950 to describe the age of rocks formed before the appearance of life in the geologic sequence. The word "Azoic" is derived from the Greek a- meaning without and zoön meaning animal (or living being), it was first used to mean without death.[1][2]

Azoic was used as early as 1846 by a geologist named Adams,[3] and gradually replaced the earlier term Primitive.[3] Due to the controversy over evolution, "Azoic" was replaced, by 1900, in most usages by the term "Archaean" or "Archaeozoic[4] The Archaean was later subdivided into the Archaean and the even earlier Hadean. Many of the rocks that had originally been thought to be of Azoic time were reclassified as Archaean, but the period itself is now essentially the Hadean.

J.D. Dana in 1863, said that the Azoic "stands as the first [age] in geologic history, whether science can point out unquestionably the rocks of that age or not." He went on to say that when fossils had been found in strata which had previously been classified as Azoic, the boundary was simply moved lower. "Such changes are part of the progress of the science."[5]

Notes

gollark: I could add monads to potatOS, but they wouldn't have backwards compatibility with burritos.

gollark: Supports monads!

gollark: I prefer BurritOS.

gollark: ***__PotatOS is most best__***

gollark: How much would white, 8 stacks cost, by the way?

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Dana-1863-1] Dana, James Dwight (1863) Manual of geology: Treating of the Principles of the Science with Special Reference to American geological history, for the use of colleges, academies, and schools of science T. Bliss & Co., Philadelphia, p.130;

[USGS-1925-2] Wilmarth, M. Grace (1925) The Geologic Time Classification of the United States Geological Survey Compared with Other Classifications United States Geological Survey, Washington, DC, pp 18, 20;

[PreC-3] Leith, Charles Kenneth and Van Hise, Charles Richard (1909) Pre-Cambrian Geology of North America United States Geological Survey, Washington, DC, p.58;

[PreC2-4] Leith, Charles Kenneth and Van Hise, Charles Richard (1909) Pre-Cambrian Geology of North America United States Geological Survey, Washington, DC, p.61;

[Dana-1863b-5] Dana, James Dwight (1863) Manual of geology: Treating of the Principles of the Science with Special Reference to American geological history, for the use of colleges, academies, and schools of science T. Bliss & Co., Philadelphia, p.134;