Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the period of geologic time from about 145 to 65 million years ago, the third and most recent period of the Mesozoic Era. The Cretaceous Period is characterized by the formation of modern continents from the supercontinent Pangaea and by the development of flowering plants. The Period ended with the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life.
- adjective Of, containing, or resembling chalk.
- noun The Cretaceous Period.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In botany: Chalky, or having chalk-glands, as in some species of Saxifraga.
- Of a chalky color; dead-white.
- Chalky.
- Found in chalk; found in strata of the cretaceous group.
- noun [capitalized] In geology, the cretaceous group.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having the qualities of chalk; abounding with chalk; chalky. See
chalk . - adjective (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 Cre*tac"ic.
- adjective an old name for carbonic acid.
- adjective (Geol.) the series of strata of various kinds, including beds of chalk, green sand, etc., formed in the Cretaceous period; -- called also the
chalk formation . See the Diagram underGeology . - adjective (Geol.) the time in the latter part of the Mesozoic age during which the Cretaceous formation was deposited, and at the end of which the dinosaurs died out. See
Cretaceous .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun geology The
geologic period within theMesozoic era that comprises lower and upperepochs from about 146 to 65 million years ago
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective abounding in chalk
- noun from 135 million to 63 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants
- adjective of or relating to or denoting the third period of the Mesozoic era
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Ricardo Delgado (W/A) and Jim Campbell (C) Dawn breaks over a sprawling forest in Cretaceous North America†a dawn far colder than its peaceful, forest-dwelling herbivores are used to.
MSP#150: Yeah, we can't believe it either... | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009
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Although an apparent explosion of dinosaur diversity occurred in the mid-Cretaceous, coinciding with the emergence of new groups e.g. neoceratopsians, ankylosaurid ankylosaurs, hadrosaurids and pachycephalosaurs, results from the first quantitative study of diversification applied to a new supertree of dinosaurs show that this apparent burst in dinosaurian diversity in the last 18 Myr of the Cretaceous is a sampling artefact.
Neoceratopsian publications for 2008 ReBecca Foster 2009
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This standard is one of the richest materials in 13C, because the Cretaceous is the time with abundant plant growth near all our coal is of that period.
WSJ: House Energy report on the "mutual admiration society" « Climate Audit 2006
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Cretaceous, which is folded and faulted and forms all the higher hills, and there is a newer series of Tertiary age, which lies nearly horizontal and rests unconformably upon the older beds.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various
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The next long era, termed the Cretaceous, was likewise more remarkable for slow accumulation of rock under the sea than for the formation of new land.
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Among the dozen specimens obtained were some fossil ammonites (a family of chambered shells) of genera which are found on other continents in certain formations classified as the Cretaceous system, and which occur neither above these formations nor below them.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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The Jurassic or first part of the reptilian time shades insensibly into the second part, called the Cretaceous, which immediately follows it.
Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky Various 1880
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Kinda like the reason the book and movie wasn't titled "Cretaceous Park", it just sounds weak.
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That date marks one of five recognised mass extinctions in history the end of the Cretaceous was another.
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That date marks one of five recognised mass extinctions in history the end of the Cretaceous was another.
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