Crossword clues for cretaceous
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cretaceous \Cre*ta"ceous\ (kr[-e]*t[=a]"sh[u^]s), a. [L. cretaceus, fr. creta chalk. See Crayon.]
Having the qualities of chalk; abounding with chalk; chalky; as, cretaceous rocks and formations. See Chalk.
(Geol.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, the period of time following the Jurassic and preceding the Tertiary, generally given as from 144 million years b. p. to 65 million years b. p.. Also called
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1670s, "chalky," from Latin cretaceus "chalk-like," from creta "chalk." As a geological period (with a capital C-), it was first used 1832. The extensive chalk beds of southeastern England were laid down during the Cretaceous.
Wiktionary
n. (context geology English) The geologic period within the Mesozoic era that comprises lower and upper epochs from about 146 to 65 million years ago
WordNet
adj. abounding in chalk
of or relating to the Cretaceous geologic era; "cretaceous rocks"
n. from 135 million to 63 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants [syn: Cretaceous period]
Wikipedia
The Cretaceous (, ), derived from the Latin "creta" ( chalk), usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide (chalk), is a geologic period and system from to 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 last period of the Mesozoic Era, and, spanning 79 million years, the longest period of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels and creating numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. At the same time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a large mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs and large marine reptiles, died out. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the K–Pg boundary, a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction which lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
Usage examples of "cretaceous".
Oviraptor, a therapod relative of the Cretaceous Tyrannosaurus rex and the Jurassic predator Allosaurus, but about the size of a small ostrich.
The most spectacular of Cretaceous mollusks were the ammonites, chambered cephalopods related to the modern pearly nautilus and, more distantly, to squid and octopus.
At or near the end of the Cretaceous the ammonites, like the ancient dinosaurs, became extinct.
By the end of the Cretaceous, modern plants such as magnolias, buttonwood trees, and the rose family decorated the landscape.
The Cretaceous beds have not yet been separated from the overlying Eocene, and the identification of the system rests on the discovery of a single Cenomanian ammonite.
After the encounter with the whale it continued its descent toward the thick Cretaceous forests, only a fraction of its kinetic energy expended.
The trees of the mighty Cretaceous forests were consumed like pine needles.
His numerous articles, essays and reviews include research on the systematics, anatomy, and evolution of early mammals and other vertebrates, studies of the Cretaceous and Paleogene vertebrate faunas, and analyses of patterns of origination and extinction.
All we need do is look at the profound loss of species that occurs as we fragment and destroy habitats now in order to have some sense of what occurred at the end of the Cretaceous in North America, and prehaps on a global scale.
The Cretaceous system, from the infra-Cretaceous Hauterivien to the Senonian, appears throughout the whole extent of Northern Bulgaria, from the summits of the Balkans to the Danube.
I would have advantaged little O-aa nothing to have known that this creature that was intent on reaching up and dragging her down into the sea was Tylosaurus, one of the rulers of the Cretaceous seas of the outer crust, eons ago.
Cretaceous, birds like the curlew might have been able to go on eating shoreline animals while the dominant enantiornithine birds died along with the dinosaurs.
When finished they found that they had more than tripled the global total of dinosaur fossils from the late Cretaceous.
In these tall Cretaceous skies, fueled by the oxygen-rich air, a pyramid of predators had erected itself, with all the savagery of its landbound analogues.
Named for the rows of uniform cusps on their teeth, the multituberculates lived past the end of the Cretaceous before becoming extinct after 150 million years of existence.