Dear Paleonetters,
Ediacaran is the
correct spelling presumably because the derivation of the name is from the
place-name Ediacara (pronounced eedy-acra)
in South Australia. Try
pronouncing Ediacarian, using that as a root! It
sounds like a cat coughing up a fur ball. The roots of all other ‘-ian’ periods lend themselves
to pronunciation without undue vocal gymnastics because of the structure of
their root (e.g. Permian from Perm etc.). Furthermore, there are many examples
of stages which do not have an ‘i’
inserted for the same reason (e.g. Mindyallan from Mindyalla, Floran from Flora, Undillan from Undilla, Amgan from Amga, Botoman from Botoma). The fact
that the majority of these are from other languages (i.e. Australian Aboriginal,
Russian etc) is no doubt due to the fact that in English, words ending in ‘-a’
are uncommon.
While not familiar with the reasons why Ediacaran
was chosen over Vendian or Sinian,
I suspect it was because there was less baggage, and less variation in the
range of interpretations and because it has the appearance of being a biostratigraphic entity (even if not defined as such), like
all the other periods. I like Ediacaran, but then I’m
biased.
John
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Dr John R.
Laurie
Petroleum and Marine Division
GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA
GPO Box 378
Canberra ACT
2601
Australia
Tel: (02)
6249 9412; Fax: (02) 6249 9980
E-mail:
John.Laurie@ga.gov.au
Street Address:
Cnr
Jerrabomberra Avenue & Hindmarsh Drive
Symonston
ACT 2609
ABN 80 091 799 039
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