X-Nico

9 unusual facts about late Cretaceous


Andyrossia

Andyrossia is an extinct genus of wasp known from the Late Cretaceous Weald Clay of southern England, containing a single species, Andyrossia joyceae.

Danian

The oceans remained much the same as the Late Cretaceous seas, only that there was less life, few remaining marine reptiles (all of which were turtles and crocodiles), and other lesser known animals.

Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur

As Pisuke grows too large and is in danger of being found, Doraemon and Nobita transports him to 100 million years ago at the Late Cretaceous period.

Lance Creek, Wyoming

Lance Creek is the namesake of the Lance Formation, a rock formation from the Late Cretaceous that has yielded fossils from a diverse number of species.

Mark Purnell

In 2009, Purnell conducted a study into the chewing methods and diet of hadrosaurids, a herbivore species of duck-billed dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period.

Namibe Province

Near the coast of the Bentiaba desert have been found Late Cretaceous fossils of sharks, turtles, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs and sauropods.

Rain beetle

The family contains a single extant genus, Pleocoma, and one extinct genus, Cretocoma, described in 2002 from Late Cretaceous deposits in Mongolia.

Tablas Creek Vineyard

Having searched for the appropriate terroir since 1985, in 1989 the Perrins and Haas chose the site, a former alfalfa farm on top of a Late Cretaceous seabed, for its soil pH and limestone base similarities to Beaucastel.

Zingiberales

It is considered that the Zingiberales together with the Commelinales evolved around 80 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous.


Aletopelta

The skeleton including femora, tibiae, fibulae and incomplete parts of a scapula, humerus, ulna, left and right ischium, vertebrae, ribs, partial armor over the pelvic girdle plus at least 60 detached armor plates and 8 teeth was found in the Late Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) marine Point Loma Formation, near Carlsbad, California.

Angulomastacator

Angulomastacator (meaning "bend chewer", in reference to both the shape of its upper jaw and to the Big Bend area of the Rio Grande, where the type specimen was found) is a genus of duck-billed dinosaur from the Campanian-age (Late Cretaceous) Aguja Formation of Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Anserimimus

The layer Anserimimus was found, is dating from the early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, or about 70 million years ago.

Balochisaurus

Balochisaurus (meaning "Balochi lizard", for the Baloch tribes of Pakistan) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Pakistan.

Ceratodus

Ceratodus is believed to have become extinct sometime around the beginning of the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, 70 Ma.

Chenanisuchus

Chenanisuchus ("Chenane crocodile") is a genus of dyrosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Mali and the Late Palaeocene of Sidi Chenane in Morocco.

Forest Falls, California

The rocks immediately surrounding Forest Falls are basement rocks characteristic of the major part of the San Bernardino Mountains, that is, Paleoproterozoic gneiss, Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic marble and quartzite, and Late Cretaceous granitic rocks.

Goronyosaurus

Goronyosaurus nigeriensis is a species of crocodile-like mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Sokoto State, Niger and northwestern Nigeria.

Khetranisaurus

Khetranisaurus (meaning "Khetran lizard", for the Khetran people of Pakistan) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod from the Late Cretaceous of Balochistan, western Pakistan (also spelled "Khateranisaurus" in some early reports).

Lavanify

Two teeth of Lavanify were discovered in 1995–1996 during joint expeditions of the State University of New York, Stony Brook University, and the University of Antananarivo to the late Cretaceous (mostly Maastrichtian, about 71 to 66 million years ago mya) Maevarano Formation of northwestern Madagascar.

Uberabatitan

Uberabatitan (meaning "Uberaba titan", in reference to where it was found) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil.


see also

9951 Tyrannosaurus

On November 21, 2002 it was renamed "Tyrannosaurus" after Tyrannosaurus, a genus of large carnivorous dinosaur of the late Cretaceous.

Adasaurus

The age of the Nemegt is not known for certain, but it is commonly thought to belong to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.

Afromaimetsha

Afromaimetsha robusta is an extinct species of wasp which existed in Botswana during the late Cretaceous period, and the only species in the genus Afromaimetsha.

Azhdarchidae

Azhdarchidae (from اژدرها (Aždarha), the Persian word for dragon) is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebrae apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the early Cretaceous as well (late Berriasian age, about 140Ma ago).

Bactris

The ancestors of the genus are believed to have entered South America during the late Cretaceous.

Braconidae

It underwent extensive diversification from mid or late Cretaceous to early Cenozoic, correlating with the radiation of flowering plants and associated herbivores, the main hosts of braconids.

CION

Cionodon, a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period

Darren Tanke

The Cenomanian (early Late Cretaceous) marine bird Pasquiaornis tankei (Tokaryk, Cumbaa and Storer, 1997) from Carrot River, Saskatchewan, Canada was named in Tanke's honor.

Diplotomodon

Diplotomodon is only known from a single tooth, holotype ANSP 9680, found near Mullica Hill in either the Navesink or Hornerstown Formation, marine deposits dating to the Maastrichtian stage of the late Cretaceous period.

Domeykosaurus

"Domeykosaurus" (meaning "Domeyko lizard", after 19th century scientist Ignacy Domeyko) is the informal name given to an undescribed genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous.

Gwawinapterus

Gwawinapterus is a genus of Mesozoic animal known from a single fossil specimen, representing the single species Gwawinapterus beardi, from the late Cretaceous period of British Columbia, Canada.

Halimornis

It lived during the Late Cretaceous about 80 mya and is known from fossils found in the Mooreville Chalk Formation in Greene County, Alabama.

Hesperornithes

Small hesperornithine bones are known from the freshwater deposits of the Late Cretaceous of the Judith River Group as well as the Hell Creek and Lance Formations as well as Eurasian sites.

Leptothorax acervorum

Using DNA analysis, the divergence date estimated for clades within the Formicidae imply that most ant subfamilies originate in the late Cretaceous period.

Mongolian Natural History Museum

The museum is particularly well known for its dinosaur and other paleontological exhibits, among which the most notable are a nearly complete skeleton of a late Cretaceous Tarbosaurus tyrannosaurid and broadly contemporaneous nests of Protoceratops eggs.

Muskiki

Muskiki Formation, a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

Nemegtosauridae

Apesteguia, S., 2004, "Bonitasaura salgadoi Gen. et sp. nov.: A beaked sauropod from The Late Cretaceous of Patagonia." Naturwissenschaften, v. 91, n.

Orodromeus

Orodromeus (meaning "Mountain Runner") is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America.

Pycnonemosaurus

It was found in the Upper Cretaceous Bauru-type red conglomerate sandstone, in the Mato Grosso, in Brazil and lived about 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage).

Sclerodermatineae

The suborder is thought to have originated in the late Cretaceous (145–66 Ma) in Asia and North America, and the major genera diversified around the mid Cenozoic (66–0 Ma).

Based on ancestral reconstruction studies, the earliest (basal) members of the Sclerodermatineae originated in the late Cretaceous (145–66 Ma).

Subashi

Subashi Formation, a late Cretaceous formation from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of western China

Typhaceae

The earliest fossils, including pollen and flowers, have been recovered from late Cretaceous deposits.

UA 8699

Averianov, Archibald, and Martin instead placed UA 8699 in the context of faunal similarity and exchange between the late Cretaceous faunas of Europe and Africa, noting the presence of similar animals, such as snakes (Medtsoia) and sauropods (Lirainosaurus and Repetosaurus), in the Cretaceous faunas of Madagascar and the Spanish locality Laño.