It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the …

Mar 25, 2026 · Cretaceous Period, in geologic time, the last of the three periods of the Mesozoic Era. It began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago and featured the extinction of the …

The Cretaceous Period lasted for nearly 80 million years. Discover what the climate was like in this geological period, where the continents were and what animals and plants lived on them. Find out …

Apr 27, 2023 · In 1882 a Belgian geologist, Omalius d’Halloy, proposed the term “Cretaceous” for strata encircling the Paris Basin in France. The term derives from the Latin word for chalk (“creta”) and …

The Cretaceous is defined as the period between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago,* the last period of the Mesozoic Era, following the Jurassic and ending with the extinction of the dinosaurs (except birds).

1 day ago · In the Late Cretaceous, while dagger-toothed dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex dominated the land, giant marine reptiles called mosasaurs were thought to have ruled the seas …

The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period, from about 146 to 136 million years ago (Ma) to the beginning of the Paleocene …