The Cretaceous ( /krtes/), derived from the Latin "creta" (chalk), usually abbreviated K

for its German translation Kreide (chalk), is a geologic period and system from circa 145.5 4 to
65.5 0.3 million years (Ma) ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic
Period and is followed by the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era. It is the youngest period of
the Mesozoic Era, and at 80 million years long, the longest period of the Phanerozoic Eon. The
end of the Cretaceous defines the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. In many
languages this period is known as "chalk period".

The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate and high eustatic sea level. The
oceans and seas were populated with now extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists; and the
land by dinosaurs. At the same time, new groups of mammals and birds as well as flowering
plants appeared. The Cretaceous ended with one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth history,
the K-T extinction, when many species, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large
marine reptiles, disappeared.

Although the first representatives of leafy trees and true grasses emerged in the Cretaceous, the
flora was still dominated by conifers like Auracaria (Here: Modern Araucaria araucana in
Chile).
Contents
[hide]

1 The Cretaceous world

o 1.1 Paleogeography
o 1.2 Climate
2 Geology
o 2.1 Research history
o 2.2 Stratigraphic subdivisions
o 2.3 Rock formations
3 Life
o 3.1 Plants
o 3.2 Terrestrial fauna
o 3.3 Marine fauna
o 3.4 Extinction
 4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

[edit] The Cretaceous world

[edit] Paleogeography

During the Cretaceous, the late-Paleozoic-to-early-Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangaea

completed its tectonic breakup into present day continents, although their positions were
substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, the convergent-margin
orogenies that had begun during the Jurassic continued in the North American Cordillera, as the
Nevadan orogeny was followed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies.

Geography of the US in the Late Cretaceous Period

Though Gondwana was still intact in the beginning of the Cretaceous, it broke up as South
America, Antarctica and Australia rifted away from Africa (though India and Madagascar
remained attached to each other); thus, the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were newly formed.
Such active rifting lifted great undersea mountain chains along the welts, raising eustatic sea
levels worldwide. To the north of Africa the Tethys Sea continued to narrow. Broad shallow seas
advanced across central North America (the Western Interior Seaway) and Europe, then receded
late in the period, leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between coal beds. At the peak of
the Cretaceous transgression, one-third of Earth's present land area was submerged.[4]

The Cretaceous is justly famous for its chalk; indeed, more chalk formed in the Cretaceous than
in any other period in the Phanerozoic.[5] Mid-ocean ridge activityor rather, the circulation of
seawater through the enlarged ridgesenriched the oceans in calcium; this made the oceans
more saturated, as well as increased the bioavailability of the element for calcareous
nanoplankton.[6] These widespread carbonates and other sedimentary deposits make the
Cretaceous rock record especially fine. Famous formations from North America include the rich
marine fossils of Kansas's Smoky Hill Chalk Member and the terrestrial fauna of the late
Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation. Other important Cretaceous exposures occur in Europe (e.g.,
the Weald) and China (the Yixian Formation). In the area that is now India, massive lava beds
called the Deccan Traps were erupted in the very late Cretaceous and early Paleocene.

[edit] Climate

The Berriasian epoch showed a cooling trend that had been seen in the last epoch of the Jurassic.
There is evidence that snowfalls were common in the higher latitudes and the tropics became
wetter than during the Triassic and Jurassic.[7] Glaciation was however restricted to alpine
glaciers on some high-latitude mountains, though seasonal snow may have existed farther south.
Rafting by ice of stones into marine environments occurred during much of the Cretaceous but
evidence of deposition directly from glaciers is limited to the Early Cretaceous of the Eromanga
Basin in southern Australia.[8][9]

After the end of the Berriasian, however, temperatures increased again, and these conditions
were almost constant until the end of the period.[7] This trend was due to intense volcanic activity
which produced large quantities of carbon dioxide. The production of large quantities of magma,
variously attributed to mantle plumes or to extensional tectonics,[10] further pushed sea levels up,
so that large areas of the continental crust were covered with shallow seas. The Tethys Sea
connecting the tropical oceans east to west also helped in warming the global climate. Warm-
adapted plant fossils are known from localities as far north as Alaska and Greenland, while
dinosaur fossils have been found within 15 degrees of the Cretaceous south pole.[11]

A very gentle temperature gradient from the equator to the poles meant weaker global winds,
contributing to less upwelling and more stagnant oceans than today. This is evidenced by
widespread black shale deposition and frequent anoxic events.[12] Sediment cores show that
tropical sea surface temperatures may have briefly been as warm as 42 C (107 F), 17 C (31
F) warmer than at present, and that they averaged around 37 C (99 F). Meanwhile deep ocean
temperatures were as much as 15 to 20 C (27 to 36 F) higher than today's.[13][14]

Further information: Cool tropics paradox

[edit] Geology
Key events in the Cretaceous
view discuss edit
-140

-130

-120

-110

-100

-90

-80

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Maastrichtian
Campanian
Santonian
Coniacian
Turonian
Cenomanian
Albian
Aptian
Barremian
Hauterivian
Valanginian
Berriasian
Jurassic
Paleogene

C
r
e
t
a
c
e
o
u
s
Mesozoic
Cenozoic

An approximate timescale of key Cretaceous events.

Axis scale: millions of years ago.

[edit] Research history

The Cretaceous as a separate period was first defined by a Belgian geologist Jean d'Omalius
d'Halloy in 1822, using strata in the Paris Basin[15] and named for the extensive beds of chalk
(calcium carbonate deposited by the shells of marine invertebrates, principally coccoliths), found
in the upper Cretaceous of western Europe. The name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta,
meaning chalk.[16] The name of the island Crete has the same origin.
[edit] Stratigraphic subdivisions

The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs or Lower and Upper
Cretaceous series. In older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series:
Neocomian (lower/early), Gallic (middle) and Senonian (upper/late). A subdivision in eleven
stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide. In many parts of the
world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use.

As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified but the
exact ages of the system's top and base are uncertain by a few million years. No great extinction
or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic. However, the top of the system is
sharply defined, being placed at an iridium-rich layer found worldwide that is believed to be
associated with the Chicxulub impact crater in Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico. This layer has
been tightly dated at 65.5 Ma.[17]

[edit] Rock formations

Drawing of fossil jaws of Mosasaurus hoffmanni, from the Maastrichtian of Dutch Limburg, by
Dutch geologist Pieter Harting (1866).

The high eustatic sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant a large area of the
continents was covered by warm shallow seas. The Cretaceous was named for the extensive
chalk deposits of this age in Europe, but in many parts of the world, the Cretaceous system
consists for a major part of marine limestone, a rock type that is formed under warm, shallow
marine circumstances. Due to the high sea level there was extensive accommodation space for
sedimentation so that thick deposits could form. Because of the relatively young age and great
thickness of the system, Cretaceous rocks crop out in many areas worldwide.

Chalk is a rock type characteristic for (but not restricted to) the Cretaceous. It consists of
coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, a type of algae that
prospered in the Cretaceous seas.

In northwestern Europe, chalk deposits from the Upper Cretaceous are characteristic for the
Chalk Group, which forms the white cliffs of Dover on the south coast of England and similar
cliffs on the French Normandian coast. The group is found in England, northern France, the low
countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North
Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of loose sediments in
many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites. Among the fossils it contains are
sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus.

In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone
beds or incompetent marls. Because the Alpine mountain chains did not yet exist in the
Cretaceous, these deposits formed on the southern edge of the European continental shelf, at the
margin of the Tethys Ocean.

Stagnation of deep sea currents in middle Cretaceous times caused anoxic conditions in the sea
water. In many places around the world, dark anoxic shales were formed during this interval.[18]
These shales are an important source rock for oil and gas, for example in the subsurface of the
North Sea.

[edit] Life
[edit] Plants

Flowering plants (angiosperms) spread during this period, although they did not become
predominant until the Campanian stage near the end of the epoch. Their evolution was aided by
the appearance of bees; in fact angiosperms and insects are a good example of coevolution. The
first representatives of many leafy trees, including figs, planes and magnolias, appeared in the
Cretaceous. At the same time, some earlier Mesozoic gymnosperms like Conifers continued to
thrive; pehuns (Monkey Puzzle trees, Araucaria) and other conifers being notably plentiful and
widespread. Some fern orders such as Gleicheniales[19] appeared as early in the fossil record as
the Cretaceous, and achieved an early broad distribution. Gymnosperm taxa like Bennettitales
died out before the end of the period.[citation needed]

[edit] Terrestrial fauna

Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest land predators of all time, lived during the late
Cretaceous.

Up to 2 m-long Velociraptor was likely feathered and roamed the late Cretaceous.


Triceratops is one of the most recognizable genera of the Cretaceous.

Mammals were a minor part of the Cretacean fauna with Eomaia being the first
Eutherian.

A pterosaur, Anhanguera piscator

On land, mammals were a small and still relatively minor component of the fauna. Early
marsupial mammals evolved in the Early Cretaceous, with true placentals emerging in the Late
Cretaceous period. The fauna was dominated by archosaurian reptiles, especially dinosaurs,
which were at their most diverse stage. Pterosaurs were common in the early and middle
Cretaceous, but as the Cretaceous proceeded they faced growing competition from the adaptive
radiation of birds, and by the end of the period only two highly specialized families remained.

The Liaoning lagersttte (Chaomidianzi formation) in China provides a glimpse of life in the
Early Cretaceous, where preserved remains of numerous types of small dinosaurs, birds, and
mammals have been found. The coelurosaur dinosaurs found there represent types of the group
Maniraptora, which is transitional between dinosaurs and birds, and are notable for the presence
of hair-like feathers.

During the Cretaceous, insects began to diversify, and the oldest known ants, termites and some
lepidopterans, akin to butterflies and moths, appeared. Aphids, grasshoppers, and gall wasps
appeared.[20]

[edit] Marine fauna

A scene from the early Cretaceous: A Woolungasaurus is attacked by a Kronosaurus.



Tylosaurus was the largest known Mosasaurus, carnivorous marine reptiles that emerged
in the late Cretaceous.

Strong-swimming and toothed predatory waterbird Hesperornis roamed late Cretacean

oceans.

Discoscaphites iris, Owl Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Ripley, Mississippi.

A plate with Nematonotus sp. , Pseudostacus sp., and a partial Dercetis triqueter from
Cretaceous found in Hakel, Lebanon

In the seas, rays, modern sharks and teleosts became common.[21] Marine reptiles included
ichthyosaurs in the early and middle of the Cretaceous, becoming extinct during the late
Cretaceous, plesiosaurs throughout the entire period, and mosasaurs appearing in the Late
Cretaceous.

Baculites, an ammonite genus with a straight shell, flourished in the seas along with reef-
building rudist clams. The Hesperornithiformes were flightless, marine diving birds that swam
like grebes. Globotruncanid Foraminifera and echinoderms such as sea urchins and starfish (sea
stars) thrived. The first radiation of the diatoms (generally siliceous, rather than calcareous) in
the oceans occurred during the Cretaceous; freshwater diatoms did not appear until the
Miocene.[20] The Cretaceous was also an important interval in the evolution of bioerosion, the
production of borings and scrapings in rocks, hardgrounds and shells (Taylor and Wilson, 2003).

[edit] Extinction

The impact of a meteorite or comet is today widely accepted as the main reason for the
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.
Main article: CretaceousTertiary extinction event

There was a progressive decline in biodiversity during the Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous
Period prior to the suggested ecological crisis induced by events at the KT boundary.
Furthermore, biodiversity required a substantial amount of time to recover from the K-T event,
despite the probable existence of an abundance of vacant ecological niches.[22]

Despite the severity of this boundary event, there was significant variability in the rate of
extinction between and within different clades. Species which depended on photosynthesis
declined or became extinct because of the reduction in solar energy reaching the Earth's surface
due to atmospheric particles blocking the sunlight. As is the case today, photosynthesizing
organisms, such as phytoplankton and land plants, formed the primary part of the food chain in
the late Cretaceous. Evidence suggests that herbivorous animals, which depended on plants and
plankton as their food, died out as their food sources became scarce; consequently, top predators
such as Tyrannosaurus rex also perished.[23]

Coccolithophorids and molluscs, including ammonites, rudists, freshwater snails and mussels, as
well as organisms whose food chain included these shell builders, became extinct or suffered
heavy losses. For example, it is thought that ammonites were the principal food of mosasaurs, a
group of giant marine reptiles that became extinct at the boundary.[24]

Omnivores, insectivores and carrion-eaters survived the extinction event, perhaps because of the
increased availability of their food sources. At the end of the Cretaceous there seem to have been
no purely herbivorous or carnivorous mammals. Mammals and birds which survived the
extinction fed on insects, larvae, worms, and snails, which in turn fed on dead plant and animal
matter. Scientists theorise that these organisms survived the collapse of plant-based food chains
because they fed on detritus.[25][22][26]

In stream communities, few groups of animals became extinct. Stream communities rely less on
food from living plants and more on detritus that washes in from land. This particular ecological
niche buffered them from extinction.[27] Similar, but more complex patterns have been found in
the oceans. Extinction was more severe among animals living in the water column, than among
animals living on or in the sea floor. Animals in the water column are almost entirely dependent
on primary production from living phytoplankton, while animals living on or in the ocean floor
feed on detritus or can switch to detritus feeding.[22]

The largest air-breathing survivors of the event, crocodilians and champsosaurs, were semi-
aquatic and had access to detritus. Modern crocodilians can live as scavengers and can survive
for months without food and go into hibernation when conditions are unfavourable, and their
young are small, grow slowly, and feed largely on invertebrates and dead organisms or fragments
of organisms for their first few years. These characteristics have been linked to crocodilian
survival at the end of the Cretaceous.[25]

Mean atmospheric O2 content over period durationca. 30 Vol %[1]

(150 % of modern level)Mean atmospheric CO2 content over period durationca. 1700 ppm[2]
(6 times pre-industrial level)Mean surface temperature over period durationca. 18 C[3]
(4 C above modern level)

The marine realm can be divided into two paleobiogeographic regions, the Tethyan and the
boreal. This division is based on the occurrence of rudist-dominated organic reeflike structures.
Rudists were large, rather unusual bivalves that had one valve shaped like a cylindrical vase and
another that resembled a flattened cap. The rudists were generally dominant over the corals as
framework builders. They rarely existed outside the Tethyan region, and the few varieties found
elsewhere did not create reeflike structures. Rudist reeflike structures of Cretaceous age serve as
reservoir rocks for petroleum in Mexico, Venezuela, and the Middle East.

Other organisms almost entirely restricted to the Tethys region were actaeonellid
and nerineid snails, colonial corals, calcareous algae, larger bottom-dwelling (benthic)
foraminiferans, and certain kinds of ammonites and echinoids. In contrast, belemnites were
apparently confined to the colder boreal waters. Important bivalves of the boreal realm were the
reclining forms (e.g., Exogyra and Gryphaea) and the inoceramids, which were particularly
widespread and are now useful for distinguishing among biostratigraphic zones.

Marine plankton took on a distinctly modern appearance by the end of the Cretaceous. The
coccolithophores became so abundant in the Late Cretaceous that vast quantities accumulated to
form the substance for which the Cretaceous Period was namedchalk. The planktonic
foraminiferans also contributed greatly to fine-grained calcareous sediments. Less-abundant but
important single-celled animals and plants of the Cretaceous include the diatoms, radiolarians,
and dinoflagellates. Other significant marine forms of minute size were the ostracods and
calpionellids.

Ammonites were numerous and were represented by a variety of forms ranging from the more-
usual coiled types to straight forms. Some of the more-unusual ammonites, called heteromorphs,
were shaped like fat corkscrews and hairpins. Such aberrant forms most certainly had difficulty
moving about. Ammonites preyed on other free-swimming or benthic invertebrates and were
themselves prey to many larger animals, including the marine reptiles called mosasaurs.

Other marine reptiles were the long-necked plesiosaurs and the more fishlike ichthyosaurs.
Sharks and rays (chondrichthians) also were marine predators, as were the teleost (ray-finned)
fishes. One Cretaceous fish, Xiphactinus, grew to more than 4.5 metres (15 feet) and is the
largest known teleost.

Many groups of marine organisms continued through from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous. Sharks
of all kinds abounded, as well as many species of bony fishes. Mosasaurs, a new type of aquatic
marine lizard, were widely distributed predators, with some species that reached over 14 meters
in length. Equally dangerous and just as large were plesiosaurs (such as Kronosaurus) and
crocodiles, but these were less common. Ichthyosaurs, which dominated Triassic and Jurassic
oceans, had all but disappeared by the Early Cretaceous.

Reptiles were not the only marine giants of the Cretaceous. Strange-looking, often gigantic
rudistid clams, reminiscent of Paleozoic horn corals, reached up to one meter in length and
formed extensive reefs in shallow tropical oceans. Inoceramid clams over three meters long
occurred in shallow, warm seas, including environments that were nearly devoid of oxygen.
Ammonite cephalopods continued to diversify into amazing sizes and shapes, with some coiled
forms over two meters across, and other forms that resembled an extended hook over two meters
long.

The Cretaceous was also a high point for the evolution of plankton, at the other end of the size
spectrum. Diatoms, a new group of photosynthesizing marine organisms, first appeared in the
Early Cretaceous. The beautiful glassy skeletons of this group were far outnumbered by the
limey-shelled coccoliths and foraminifera. Many other types of calcareous plankton reached their
peaks at this time. These organisms dominated the plankton in most of the worlds oceans well
into the succeeding Cenozoic Era, when the seas were much cooler and the patterns of ocean
circulation much different.

No great extinction or burst of diversity separated the Cretaceous from the Jurassic Period that
had preceded it. In some ways, things went on as they had. Dinosaurs both great and small
moved through forests of ferns, cycads, and conifers. Ammonites, belemnites, other molluscs,
and fish were hunted by great "marine reptiles," and pterosaurs and birds flapped and soared in
the air above. Yet the Cretaceous saw the first appearance of many lifeforms that would go on to
play key roles in the coming Cenozoic world.

Perhaps the most important of these events, at least for terrestrial life, was the first appearance of
the flowering plants, also called the angiosperms or Anthophyta. First appearing in the Lower
Cretaceous around 125 million years ago, the flowering plants first radiated in the middle
Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago. By the close of the Cretaceous, a number of forms had
evolved that any modern botanist would recognize.

At about the same time, many modern groups of insects were beginning to diversify, and we find
the oldest known ants and butterflies. Aphids, grasshoppers, and gall wasps appear in the
Cretaceous, as well as termites and ants in the later part of this period. Another important insect
to evolve was the eusocial bee, which was integral to the ecology and evolution of flowering
plants.

The Cretaceous also saw the first radiation of the diatoms in the oceans (freshwater diatoms did
not appear until the Miocene).

The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction

The most famous, if not the largest, of all mass extinctions marks the end of the Cretaceous
Period, 65 million years ago. As everyone knows, this was the great extinction in which the
dinosaurs died out. (Except for the birds, of course.) The other lineages of "marine reptiles", such
as the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs, also were extinct by the end of the Cretaceous,
as did the flying pterosaurs -- although some, like the ichthyosaurs, were probably extinct a little
before the end of the Cretaceous. Many species of foraminiferans went extinct at the end of the
Cretaceous, as did the ammonites. But many groups of organisms, such as flowering plants,
gastropods and pelecypods (snails and clams), amphibians, lizards and snakes, crocodilians, and
mammals "sailed through" the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, with few or no apparent
extinctions at all.