megayear

A megayear is a unit of time equal to one million years. It is primarily used in geology and cosmology to describe vast periods of time, such as the age of the Earth or the lifespan of stars. The prefix "mega" signifies a factor of one million. Therefore, one megayear is equivalent to 1,000,000 years.

This unit is particularly useful when discussing geological timescales, which span billions of years. For instance, the Mesozoic Era, often referred to as the "Age of Reptiles," lasted approximately 186 megayears. Similarly, in astronomy, the evolution of galaxies and the lifecycles of stars are often described using megayears or even gigayears (billions of years). The use of megayears helps to condense these immense durations into more manageable figures for scientific discourse.