Question

Note to moderator: Read the answerline carefully. This system’s 2012 update rejected calibration from SHRIMP analyses with the “Sri Lanka 13” standard. Thomas Halliday described places separated by this system in Otherlands. New Zealand’s regional version of this system uses a series named for Wanganui. Siegfried Zielinski’s pioneering book on media archaeology borrows a term for the scope of this system coined by John McPhee in Basin and Range. Part of this system is disparaged as the “Boring Billion.” (10[1]-5[1])“Early” sections (10[1])of this intangible system are demarcated at the “lower” limits of corresponding biozones by “golden (10[1])spikes.” This system’s divisions, (10[1])which are measured in mya (“M-Y-A”) and include the (10[1])Guadalupian, (10[1]-5[2])correspond to global (10[1])boundaries (10[2])set by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. (10[2])For 10 points, what system of divisions of the Earth’s past defines the Silurian and (10[1])Mesozoic? (10[1])■END■ (10[8]0[2])

Back to tossups

Buzzes

Summary