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Information about Late Cretaceous

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Geography of the US in the Late Cretaceous Period
Late Cretaceous (100mya - 65mya) refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period, named after the famous white chalk cliffs of southern England, which date from this time. Rocks deposited during the Late Cretaceous Period are referred to as the Upper Cretaceous Series.

This was a period of great success for dinosaurs, with many new types appearing and diversifying, such as the Tyrannosaurs, duck bills, Ankylosauridae, and horned dinosaurs in Asiamerica (Western North America and eastern Asia), and Titanosaurs and Abelisaurs in Gondwana.

Birds became increasingly common and diverse, replacing the pterosaurs which retreated to increasingly specialised ecological niches.

In the seas, mosasaurs suddenly appeared and underwent a spectacular evolutionary radiation. Modern sharks also appeared and giant-penguin-like polycotylid pliosaurs (3 meters long) and huge long-necked elasmosaurs (13 meters long) also diversified. These predators fed on the numerous teleost fishes, which in turn evolved into new advanced and modern forms (Neoteleostei).

Near the end of the Cretaceous Period, flowering plants diversified and didelphid marsupials and primitive placental mammals also became common.

The period was ended by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

Cretaceous period
Lower/Early Cretaceous Upper/Late Cretaceous
Berriasian | Valanginian | Hauterivian
Barremian | Aptian | Albian		Cenomanian | Turonian | Coniacian
Santonian | Campanian | Maastrichtian
The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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A geologic period is a subdivision of geologic time that divides an era into smaller timeframes. The equivalent term used to demarcate rock layers and the fossil record is the system; thus the rocks of the Devonian System were laid down during the Devonian Period.
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Chalk (IPA: /ˈtʃɔːk/) is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite.
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Dinosauria *
Owen, 1842

Orders & Suborders
  • Ornithischia
  • Cerapoda
  • Thyreophora
  • Saurischia

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Hadrosauridae
Cope, 1869

Subfamilies
  • Hadrosaurinae Cope, 1869
  • Lambeosaurinae Parks, 1923
Synonyms
  • Trachodontidae Lydekker, 1888
  • Saurolophidae Brown, 1914
  • Lambeosauridae Parks, 1923 vide Horner, 1990

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Ankylosauridae
Brown, 1908

Genera

See text.

An ankylosaurid is a member of the Ankylosauridae family of armored dinosaurs that evolved 125 million years ago (along with another family of ankylosaurs, the Nodosauridae) and became extinct
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Ceratopsidae
Marsh, 1890

Genera

See text.

Ceratopsids, or members of the Ceratopsidae (or Ceratopidae), are a diverse group of marginocephalian dinosaurs like Triceratops and Styracosaurus.
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Asiamerica was a large island formed from the Laurasian landmass and separated by shallow continental seas from Eurasia to the West and eastern North America to the East. This region incorporated what are now China, Mongolia, western USA and western Canada.
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Titanosauria
Bonaparte & Coria, 1993
Superfamily: Titanosauroidea
Lydekker, 1895

Families
  • Andesauridae
  • Antarctosauridae
  • Euhelopodidae
  • Nemegtosauridae
  • Saltasauridae
Titanosaurs
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Abelisauridae
Bonaparte & Novas, 1985

Genera
  • Abelisaurus (type genus)
  • Aucasaurus
  • Carnotaurus
  • ?Compsosuchus
  • Ekrixinatosaurus
  • Ilokelesia
  • ?Indosaurus

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Gondwana (IPA: /ɡɒnˈdwɑːnə/[1], originally Gondwanaland) included most of the landmasses in today's southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar,
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Pterosauria
Kaup, 1834

Suborders

Pterodactyloidea
Rhamphorhynchoidea *

Pterosaurs (/ˈtɛ.
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Mosasauridae
Gervais, 1853

Subfamilies

Halisaurinae
Mosasaurinae
Plioplatecarpinae
Tylosaurinae

Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the 'Meuse river' in the Netherlands, and Greek sauros
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Polycotylidae is a family of large plesiosaurs from the Cretaceous, a sister group to the elasmosauridae.

With their short necks and large elongated heads, they resemble the pliosaurs, but closer phylogenetical studies indicate that they share many common features with the
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Pliosauroidea
Welles, 1943

Families and genera

see text
The Pliosaurs ("Fin Lizards") were marine reptiles from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.
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Elasmosauridae was the taxonomic family of the most advanced plesiosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and survived from the Early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. They had a diet of fish and shelless cephalopods.
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Teleostei

Superorders

Osteoglossomorpha
Elopomorpha
Clupeomorpha
Ostariophysi
Protacanthopterygii
Sternopterygii
Cyclosquamata
Scopelomorpha
Lampridiomorpha
Polymyxiomorpha
Paracanthopterygii
Polymyxiomorpha
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Magnoliophyta

Classes

Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Liliopsida - Monocots

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms comprise the two extant groups of seed plants.
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Didelphimorphia
Gill, 1872

Family: Didelphidae
Gray, 1821

Genera

Several; see text
Didelphimorphia is the order of common opossums of the Western Hemisphere.
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Marsupialia
Illiger, 1811

Orders
  • Didelphimorphia
  • Paucituberculata
  • Microbiotheria
  • Dasyuromorphia
  • Peramelemorphia
  • Notoryctemorphia
  • Diprotodontia
  • Sparassodonta (extinct)
  • Yalkaparidontia (extinct)
Marsupials
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Eutheria

Orders[1]
  • Bobolestes
  • Eomaia
  • Maelestes
  • Montanalestes
  • Murtoilestes
  • Prokennalestes
  • Placentalia
  • Superorder

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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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The Early Cretaceous (timestratigraphic name) or the Lower Cretaceous (logstratigraphic name), is the earlier of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous Period. It began about 146 million years ago.
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In the geologic timescale, Berriasian is a stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch. It spanned between 145.5 ± 4.0 Ma and 140.2 ± 3.0 Ma (million years ago). The Berriasian stage succeeds the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic epoch and precedes the Valanginian stage of the Early
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In the geologic timescale, Valanginian is a stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch. It spanned between 140.2 ± 3.0 Ma and 136.4 ± 2.0 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian stage succeeds the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous and precedes the Hauterivian stage of the Early
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The Hauterivian is a stage of the Early Cretaceous Epoch. It spans the time between 136.4 ± 2 Ma and 130 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago).

Fauna

Ammonites

  • Abrytasites

Dinosaurs

  • Afrovenator
  • Histriasaurus

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