Thursday, May 1, 2014

Geologic periods


May Day is the traditional holiday for Marxists and other Reds, but I am not writing about that.  Instead I will discuss a wonderful mnemonic device for remembering geological periods.  

I have been collecting fossils since I was seven years old, and I have memorized the geologic periods many times during my life, but it never sticks.  Now, while reading The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (I will post about that shortly), I came across a mnemonic device to help me remember.  It is:  Camels Often Sit Down Carefully, Perhaps Their Joints Creak.

That corresponds to:  Cambrian-Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian-Carboniferous-Permian-Triassic-Jurassic-Cretaceous.  I cannot tell you how happy that has made me.

No comments:

Post a Comment