A function to generate time bins for a given study interval and geological
timescale. This function is flexible in that either stage-level or higher
stratigraphic-level (e.g. period) time bins can be called, valid timescales
from Macrostrat can be
used, or a data.frame
of a geological timescale can be provided. In
addition, near equal-length time bins can be generated by grouping
intervals together. For example, for a target bin size of 10 Myr, the
function will generate groups of bins that have a mean bin length close to
10 Myr. However, users may also want to consider grouping stages based on
other reasoning e.g. availability of outcrop (see Dean et al. 2020).
Usage
time_bins(
interval = "Phanerozoic",
rank = "stage",
size = NULL,
assign = NULL,
scale = "GTS2020",
plot = FALSE
)
Arguments
- interval
character or numeric
. Interval name available inGTS2020
orGTS2012
. If a single interval name is provided, this interval is returned. If two interval names are provided, these intervals and those existing between are returned. If a single numeric age is provided, the interval that covers this age is returned. If two numeric ages are provided, the intervals occurring in the range of these ages are returned. Defaults to "Phanerozoic". This argument is ignored ifscale
is not "GTS2020" or "GTS2012".- rank
character
. Which stratigraphic rank is desired? Choose from: "stage", "epoch", "period", "era", and "eon". This argument is ignored ifscale
is not "GTS2020" or "GTS2012".- size
numeric
. If equal-length time bins are desired, specify the length in millions of years (Myr) of the time bins desired.- assign
numeric
. A numeric vector of age estimates to use to assign to requested bins. If assign is specified, a numeric vector is returned of the midpoint age of the specified bins. Note this is the simplified approach of assignment inpalaeoverse
included for data with 'known' point-age estimates. For a wider range of binning methods, seepalaeoverse::bin_time()
.- scale
character
ordata.frame
. Specify the desired geological timescale to be used: "GTS2020" (default), "GTS2012", a valid timescale from Macrostrat, or user-inputdata.frame
. If adata.frame
is provided, it must contain at least the following named columns: "interval_name", "max_ma", and "min_ma". As such, age data should be provided in Ma.- plot
logical
. Should a plot of time bins be generated?
Value
A data.frame
of time bins for the specified intervals or a
list with a data.frame
of time bins and a named numeric
vector (bin number) of binned age estimates (midpoint of specified bins)
if assign
is specified. By default, the time bins data.frame
contains the following columns: bin, interval_name, rank, max_ma, mid_ma,
min_ma, duration_myr, abbr (interval abbreviation), colour and font
(colour). If size
is specified, the time bins data.frame
contains the following columns: bin, max_ma, mid_ma, min_ma,
duration_myr, grouping_rank, intervals, colour and font.
Details
This function uses either the Geological Time Scale 2020,
Geological Time Scale 2012, a valid timescale from
Macrostrat, or a
user-input data.frame
(see scale
argument) to generate time bins.
Additional information on included Geological Time Scales and source can
be accessed via:
Available interval names are accessible via the interval_name
column
in GTS2012
and GTS2020
. Data of the Geological Timescale 2020 and
2012 were compiled by Lewis A. Jones (2022-07-02).
References
Dean, C.D., Chiarenza, A.A. and Maidment, S.C., 2020. Formation binning: a new method for increased temporal resolution in regional studies, applied to the Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossil record of North America. Palaeontology, 63(6), 881-901. doi:10.1111/pala.12492 .
Examples
#Using numeric age
ex1 <- time_bins(interval = 10, plot = TRUE)
#Using numeric age range
ex2 <- time_bins(interval = c(50, 100), plot = TRUE)
#Using a single interval name
ex3 <- time_bins(interval = c("Maastrichtian"), plot = TRUE)
#Using a range of intervals and near-equal duration bins
ex4 <- time_bins(interval = c("Fortunian", "Meghalayan"),
size = 10, plot = TRUE)
#> Target equal length time bins was set to 10.02 Myr.
#> Generated time bins have a mean length of 10.82 Myr and a standard deviation of 2.41 Myr.
#Assign bins based on given age estimates
ex5 <- time_bins(interval = c("Fortunian", "Meghalayan"),
assign = c(232, 167, 33))
#Use user-input data.frame to generate near-equal length bins
scale <- data.frame(interval_name = 1:5,
min_ma = c(0, 18, 32, 38, 45),
max_ma = c(18, 32, 38, 45, 53))
ex6 <- time_bins(scale = scale, size = 20, plot = TRUE)
#> Target equal length time bins was set to 17.67 Myr.
#> Generated time bins have a mean length of 17.67 Myr and a standard deviation of 2.52 Myr.
#Use North American land mammal ages from Macrostrat
ex7 <- time_bins(scale = "North American land mammal ages", size = 10)
#> Target equal length time bins was set to 9.43 Myr.
#> Generated time bins have a mean length of 9.43 Myr and a standard deviation of 1.19 Myr.