- Silurian (Wikipedia)
The Silurian (/sɪˈljʊəriːən, saɪ-/ sih-LURE-ee-ən, sy-) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period’s start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.
- Muliphein (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
MULIPHEIN (Gamma Canis Majoris). The names Wezen and Hadar (in Arabic form) were once applied to a pair of stars. Though there are candidates, no one knows which pair. The uncertainty was in older times expressed as an Arabic word that in part referred to a pair of things that caused contention. The word itself was then taken as the pair, much mangled to Muliphein (sometimes seen as Muliphen), and then for no good reason given to the little star that Bayer later tagged as Gamma of Canis Major (while Wezen was given to our modern Delta, and Hadar to modern Beta Centauri).
