Because of some analogy of elements 165–172 to periods 2 and 3, Fricke et al. considered them to form a ninth period of the periodic table, while the eighth period was taken by them to end at the noble metal element 164. This ninth period would be similar to the second and third period in having no transition metals. That being said, the analogy is incomplete for elements 165 and 166; although they do start a new s-shell (9s), this is above a d-shell, making them chemically more similar to groups 11 and 12.