Debate
In geology a good debate concerning the use of myr remains open concerning "the use of Myr plus Ma" verses "using Ma only". In either case the term Ma is used in geology literature conforming to ISO 31-1 and NIST 811 recommended practices. Traditional style geology literature is written
The Cretaceous started 145 Ma and ended 65 Ma, lasting for 80 Myr.There "ago" is implied, so that any such year number "X " between 65 and 145 is "Cretaceous", for good reason. But the counter argument is that having myr for a duration and Ma for an age mixes unit systems, and tempts capitalization errors: "million" need not be capitalized, but "mega" must be; "ma" would technically imply a milliyear (a thousandth of a year, or 8 hours). On this side of the debate, one avoids myr and simply adds ago explicitly (or adds BP), as in
The Cretaceous started 145 Ma ago and ended 65 Ma ago, lasting for 80 Ma.Unfortunately "80 Ma" is not "Cretaceous" anymore as it was in tradition holding myr or Myr, but only a quantity of 80 million years.
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