Cambrian (538.8 +/-0.2 Ma)
Back to Time ScaleRepresentation and status
- Color CMYK
- 50 / 20 / 65 / 0 (Commission for the Geological Map of the World)
- Color RGB
- R: 127 G: 160 B: 86
- Rank
- chronostratigraphic Period
- Validity
- Unit is in Use
- Status
- valid formal name
Nomenclature
- Deutsch
- Kambrium
- Français
- Cambrien
- Italiano
- Cambriano
- English
- Cambrian (538.8 +/-0.2 Ma)
- Origin of the Name
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Derived from the Latinised form of the Welsh name Cymru (Wales).
- Historical Variants
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--- (Sedgwick 1835-1836), Silurique inférieur = Cambrium (Mayer-Eymar 1888), Kambrium
- Nomenclatorial Remarks
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From the Old Welsh combrog = compatriot.
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth in the first part of his pseudohistory Historia Regum Britanniae, the Trojan Brutus had three sons among whom (having subdued Gogmagog) he divided his lands after landing in Britain. His elder son, Locrinus, received the land between the rivers Humber and Severn, which he called Loegria (a Latinization of the Welsh name Lloegr, "England"). His second son, Albanactus, got the lands beyond the Humber, which took from him the name of Albany (Yr Alban in Welsh: Scotland). The younger son, Camber, was bequeathed everything beyond the Severn, which was called after him "Cambria".
Hierarchy and sequence
- Subordinate units
- Units at roof
Age
- Age at top
-
- Cambrian
- Age at base
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- Cambrian