Cretaceous period: main characteristics

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Throughout the centuries, the Earth has gone through many geological events, being at first very different from how we know it today. There was a time when human beings did not exist, and neither did our continents, but the planet was dominated by other species in lands very different from ours. These very old periods can be divided into different stages, and to know one of them in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about the main characteristics of the Cretaceous Period.

Index

1. What is the Cretaceous?
2. Stages of the Cretaceous period
3. The 11 most outstanding Cretaceous characteristics

The Cretaceous or Cretaceous is one of the geological divisions into which the Mesozoic era (also called Age of dinosaurs or Secondary Age). The Cretaceous is the last of the three periods into which the Mesozoic Era is divided, placing it after the Triassic and Jurassic.

The Cretaceous was a long period, stretching for about

It was a time where a great diversity in many aspects of life, being a period marked by the large number of dinosaurs existing, by the appearance of some of the creatures that would dominate the world in later stages and by the rise of some of the most common plants today. All this, together with the separation of the continents, made the world look much more like the world at the end of this time than at the beginning of this stage.

One of the most important moments of the Cretaceous was the extinction that took place, in which all dinosaurs and similar species became extinct. It is not known with certainty what caused this extinction, but it is generally considered that it was caused by an asteroid or by climate change.

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Like any period in history, the Cretaceous is divided into several stages, these being the so-called Lower Cretaceous and Upper Cretaceous. To better understand the differences between the two, we must talk about their main characteristics and their subdivisions.

Lower cretaceous

Also called Early cretaceous is the part that has passed since 145 to 100 million years in the past. It was a period of great splendor for animals, especially dinosaurs. It is in these years that the first birds appear and the first angiosperms with a single cotyledon. Even with everything the most important of this period is when the continents separated from each other, although they did not have the current form. Regarding its subdivisions, we can talk about the following separations:

• Berriasiense
• Valanginian
• Hauterivian
• Barremian
• Aptian
• Albiense

Upper Cretaceous

Also called Late cretaceous is the period that elapsed ago 100 million years to 66 million years ago of years. During this period, both birds and mammals became abundant, and the types of dinosaurs increased, although in the end of the period were extinct The continents were separated in a similar way to the present, and were full of plants with flowers. The subdivisions of this stage were the following:

• Cenomanian
• Turonian
• Coniaciense
• Santonian
• Campanian
• Maastrichtian

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To conclude this lesson on the main characteristics of the Cretaceous period, we must talk about the characteristics that make this stage unique to understand why it is so important to the history of the Land. The main characteristics of the Cretaceous are as follows:

1. A time of great biological prosperity, with the appearance of a large number of species, both animals and plants, many of which still populate our planet today.
2. Was a very long periodEven comparing it with other similar stages, that is why so many things happened.
3. It was the time of greater versatility of dinosaurs, the great dinosaurs and similar species dominated both the air, the earth, and the water, being the last stage in which their dominance was so great.
4. In the Cretaceous the moment of greatest extinction in all of history of our planet, when an event of which we are not sure wiped out all the dinosaurs, the dominant beings until that moment. It is thought that this event could have arisen by an asteroid, or by some climatic changes.
5. It was the stage in which Pangea totally separated, thereby generating the appearance of new continents. The continents of the last years of the Cretaceous were already similar to the current ones.
6. The separation of the continents created new oceans and seas, like the present Atlantic, Indian and Arctic. The sea level was very high, reaching the highest levels in history up to that moment
7. The prevailing climate in the Cretaceous was a very warm one.
8. There was not too great a difference between the poles and the equatorial zone, since the poles were not covered with ice.
9. The plants with flowers they became one of the most predominant plants in the world, occupying a large part of the vegetation of the new continents.
10. The first birds and mammals, although the earth was still dominated by dinosaurs.
11. Among the most important dinosaurs of this stage we can find the famous Tyrannosaurs and to Triceratops. At this time is when we find most of the famous dinosaurs, since it is in which it had the greatest diversity.

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