3120: Geologic Periods - Revision history

DollarStoreBa'al: Me am fix issue

2025-12-09T15:08:21Z

Me am fix issue

75.98.103.2: /* Explanation */

2025-11-18T17:16:51Z

‎Explanation

DollarStoreBa'al: editing your possible reference a bit

2025-11-14T19:22:54Z

editing your possible reference a bit

JsfasdF252: /* Explanation */ mention Time comic

2025-11-14T19:19:39Z

‎Explanation: mention Time comic

Amateurautist at 15:09, 31 October 2025

2025-10-31T15:09:25Z

Amateurautist at 15:07, 31 October 2025

2025-10-31T15:07:59Z

82.132.238.200: /* Explanation / It can be (and has been) explained. The best justification*, though, is "this is what it was before". Which is just kicking the can back down the road. (i.e.: Current naming conventions just idly defer to the old conventions' reasons.)

2025-09-08T11:07:07Z

‎Explanation: It can be (and has been) explained. The best *justification*, though, is "this is what it was before". Which is just kicking the can back down the road. (i.e.: Current naming conventions just idly defer to the old conventions' reasons.)

181.189.25.14 at 01:19, 8 September 2025

2025-09-08T01:19:46Z

71.46.92.136 at 18:22, 24 August 2025

2025-08-24T18:22:34Z

2001:67C:2628:647:32:704:0:357 at 17:59, 24 August 2025

2025-08-24T17:59:55Z

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
 This comic depicts a table representing planet Earth's geological time scale. For each period, [[Randall]] highlights his rather idiosyncratic likes and dislikes among their characteristics, instead of accompanying each geological name with facts pertinent to it, such as the duration of the period represented, the state of the Earth (e.g., glaciated), or the flora and fauna most common.
@@ Line 79: / Line 76: @@
 ! rowspan="2" | {{w|Jurassic}} (201&#8288;&#8211;&#8288;143)
 |{{Yes|Birds}}
-|The {{w|Avialae|ancestors of modern birds}} emerged during the Jurassic. Randall has repeatedly found it cool that birds are modern-day dinosaurs.
+|The {{w|Avialae|ancestors of modern birds}} emerged during the Jurassic. A common 'fun fact' about birds is that they are modern-day dinosaurs, as the ancestors of today's birds were some of the few dinosaurs to survive the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}}. Randall has repeatedly expressed interest in this fact, and has repeatedly mentioned it in his comics.
 |-
 |{{No|Parasitoid wasps}}
@@ Line 86: / Line 83: @@
 ! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cretaceous}} (143&#8288;&#8211;&#8288;66)
 |{{Yes|Raptors}}
-| rowspan="2" |{{w|Dromaeosauridae|Raptors}}, especially {{w|Velociraptors}}, are a [[:Category:Velociraptors|trope]] within xkcd, especially in its early years. They were popularized by their appearance in the ''[[:Category:Jurassic Park|Jurassic Park]]'' film series. In the films, velociraptors are depicted as small (shorter than adult humans) bipedal scaled dinosaurs which frequently attacked and killed humans. Velociraptors and the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world are a subject of several [[xkcd]] strips. Thus, "raptors" appears in both the "Favorites" and "Complaints" columns of the table.
+| rowspan="2" |{{w|Dromaeosauridae|Raptors}}, especially {{w|Velociraptors}}, are a [[Category:Velociraptors|trope]] within xkcd, especially in its early years. They were popularized by their appearance in the ''[[:Category:Jurassic Park|Jurassic Park]]'' film series. In the films, velociraptors are depicted as small (shorter than adult humans) bipedal scaled dinosaurs which frequently attacked and killed humans. Velociraptors and the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world are a subject of several [[xkcd]] strips. Thus, "raptors" appears in both the "Favorites" and "Complaints" columns of the table.
 |-
 |{{No|Raptors}}
@@ Line 112: / Line 109: @@
 |}
-The title text expands on the complaint about the "third" <em>v</em> "fourth" discrepancy in regard to the Quaternary Period by postulating the existence of an unnamed geologic period within the Cenozoic Era "that geologists won't tell us about". In fact, the use of "Quaternary" (and "Tertiary") in recent/current geological nomenclature is a relic of four centuries of the history of geological studies in Western Europe, complicated by the religiously-inspired acceptance until the beginning of the 19th century, among European scholars, of an Earth that was only 6000 years old. "Primary" rocks were those considered to have been present in mountains before the "Great Deluge" of Noah (the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}}), while "Secondary" rocks represented the rubble from the Flood. Igneous and metamorphic rocks came to be understood as "primary", and eldest (within the context of a 6000-year-old Earth), and sedimentary rocks as "secondary". More recent geological formations came to be known as "tertiary" (relatively newer) and "quaternary" (even more recent). As the idea of Earth being billions of years old gained acceptance and we invented tools for dating rocks, "primary" and "secondary" fell away as descriptors for both rock types and rock ages, replaced by terms that convey information about the rocks more accurately. "Tertiary" was applied to "Cenozoic minus Quaternary", and survived in formal nomenclature into the 21st century. No alternative for "Quaternary" has yet been accepted, so the name persists as fodder for cartoonists who wonder, not without cause, how a "third" element in Earth history could be labeled a "fourth" element.
+The title text expands on the complaint about the "third" <em>v</em> "fourth" discrepancy in regard to the Quaternary Period by claiming the existence of an unnamed geologic period within the Cenozoic Era "that geologists won't tell us about". As the idea of Earth being billions of years old gained acceptance and we invented tools for dating rocks, "primary" and "secondary" fell away as descriptors for both rock types and rock ages, replaced by terms that convey information about the rocks more accurately. "Tertiary" was applied to "Cenozoic minus Quaternary", and survived in formal nomenclature into the 21st century. No alternative for "Quaternary" has yet been accepted, so the name persists as fodder for cartoonists who wonder, not without cause, how a "third" element in Earth history could be labeled a "fourth" element. The phrase '''x'' that ''y'' won't tell us about' is a common trope in {{w|Conspiracy theory|Conspiracy theories}} in which something is claimed to be hidden from the populace.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 ! rowspan="2" | {{w|Ordovician}} (487&#8288;&#8211;&#8288;443)
 |{{Yes|Earth might have had rings}}
-|Due to the location of impact of one type of meteorite, they may have been part of a {{w|Rings of Earth|planetary ring system around Earth}}, formed by the destruction of a parent body that entered Eath's Roche limit, before colliding with it.
+|Due to the location of impact of one type of meteorite, they may have been part of a {{w|Rings of Earth|planetary ring system around Earth}}, formed by the destruction of a parent body that entered Earth's Roche limit, before colliding with it.
 |-
 |{{No|Scary volcanic eruption in North America}}

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 |-
 |{{No|Zanclean flood}}
-|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea. This may be a reference to xkcd's [[Time]].
+|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea. It is possible that Randall included this as a reference to [[1190: Time]], which centers around a flood around the Mediterranean sea similar to the Zanclean flood theory.
 |-
 ! rowspan="2" | {{w|Quaternary}} (2.6&#8288;&#8211;&#8288;present)

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 |-
 |{{No|Zanclean flood}}
-|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea.
+|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea. This may be a reference to xkcd's [[Time]].
 |-
 ! rowspan="2" | {{w|Quaternary}} (2.6&#8288;&#8211;&#8288;present)

@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 :[A table with 3 columns, labelled: "Period", "My favorite part" and "My biggest complaint". There are 13 rows below the labels]
 :[Row 1: Period:] ''Precambrian''
 :[My favorite part:] Life develops
 :[My biggest complaint:] Snowball Earth episodes
 :[Row 2: Period:] Cambrian
 :[My favorite part:] Trilobites!
 :[My biggest complaint:] Evolution could stand to calm down a little
 :[Row 3: Period:] Ordovician
 :[My favorite part:] Earth might have had rings
 :[My biggest complaint:] Scary volcanic eruption in North America
 :[Row 4: Period:] Silurian
 :[My favorite part:] First land animals
 :[My biggest complaint:] Earth's newfound mold problem
 :[Row 5: Period:] Devonian
 :[My favorite part:] Big mountains in Boston
 :[My biggest complaint:] Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was '''''armor'''''
 :[Row 6: Period:] Carboniferous
 :[My favorite part:] Cool forests
 :[My biggest complaint:] Bugs too big
 :[Row 7: Period:] Permian
 :[My favorite part:] Pangea
 :[My biggest complaint:] Google "The Great Dying"
 :[Row 8: Period:] Triassic
 :[My favorite part:] Tanystropheus [accompanying the text in this cell is an image of a ''Tanystropheus'' and its characteristic elongated neck, with Cueball standing next to it for scale]
 :[My biggest complaint:] Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan
 :[Row 9: Period:] Jurassic
 :[My favorite part:] Birds
 :[My biggest complaint:] Parasitoid wasps
 :[Row 10: Period:] Cretaceous
 :[My favorite part:] Raptors
 :[My biggest complaint:] Raptors
 :[Row 11: Period:] Paleogene
 :[My favorite part:] Pretty horseys!!!
 :[My biggest complaint:] Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum
 :[Row 12: Period:] Neogene
 :[My favorite part:] Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees
 :[My biggest complaint:] Zanclean flood
 :[Row 13: Period:] Quaternary
 :[My favorite part:] Burrito invented

@@ Line 109: / Line 109: @@
 |-
 |{{No|Whoever picked the name for the third period of the Cenozoic}}
-|The third period of the {{w|Cenozoic Era}} is the Quaternary ("Fourth"), named by Jules Desnoyers in 1829. Randall is riffing on the cognitive disconnect between "third" and "fourth", for which the current geological naming conventions offer no explanation.
+|The third period of the {{w|Cenozoic Era}} is the Quaternary ("Fourth"), named by Jules Desnoyers in 1829. Randall is riffing on the cognitive disconnect between "third" and "fourth", for which the current geological naming conventions offer no justification.
 |}

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-{{notice2|<big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big>CRAPPED{{:{{PAGENAME}}}}}}
+{{incomplete|
 *This explanation should focus more on explaining the jokes in the comic rather than the history of life on Earth. There are still no explanations of the "birds" and "raptors" joke, which are the main jokes in the comic.
 *The title text explanation could be shortened a bit.}}