Chapter 17

The Cretaceous
World
 Guiding Questions
• How did plankton in the ocean become more
modern during the Cretaceous Period?
• How did the evolutionary expansion of predatory
taxa transform the marine ecosystem during
Cretaceous time?
• How did reef ecosystems change during the
Cretaceous Period?
• How did terrestrial floras change during the
Cretaceous Period?
• What happened to Gondwanaland during the
Cretaceous Period?
Cretaceous
Period

• Time of
transition
Life of the Cretaceous
• Plankton
– Diatoms radiated
– Foraminifera
diversified
– Calcareous
nannoplankton
radiated
– Ammonoids and
belemnoids
persisted
 Life of the Cretaceous
• Teleost fish
- Dominant modern group - Symmetric tail
- Specialized fins - Short Jaws
Life of the Cretaceous
• Marine reptiles still
important
– Mosasaurs
– Up to 15 m in length
– Hesperornis
– Marine turtles
Life of the Cretaceous
• Foraminifera
– Many modern
benthic foraminifera
originated
• Encrusting
Bryozoans
– Cheilostomes
• Burrowing bivalve
mollusks
• Gastropod Mollusks
• Crabs
Life of the Cretaceous
• Surface-dwelling
bivalve mollusks
– Rudists
– Formed large
tropical reefs
• Up to 1 m height
• Predators led to
reduction in
brachiopods and
stalked crinoids
Life of the Cretaceous
• Flowering Plants
– Angiosperms
appear
• Flowering plants
• Hardwood trees
– Increase in
complexity and
form
– Gymnosperms still
dominant
Life of the Cretaceous
• Vertebrate faunas
– Community
analogous to
modern African
savannah
– Duck-billed
dinosaurs
Life of the Cretaceous
• Tyrannosaurus rex
• Flying vertebrates
– Reptiles
– Birds
 Life of the Cretaceous
• Terrestrial crocodiles
– up to 15 m (50 feet!) in length
Life of the Cretaceous
• Mammal
evolution
– Pointed teeth
– Endothermic
– Large brains
– Suckled their
young
– Rear feet for
grasping
• Tree climbing
 Life of the Cretaceous
• Purgatorius
– Rat-like mammal
Paleogeography
• Most continents
were isolated
• Seas opened:
– South Atlantic;
Gulf of Mexico;
Caribbean Sea
• Mid-Cretaceous sea
level high
– Tethys Seaway
Paleogeography
• Wind belt
– Evaporite
deposition
Paleogeography
• Period of high sea
level
– Associated with
rapid sea floor
spreading
– Long period
without magnetic
field reversal
Paleogeography
• High latitudes were
warm
– 50°F / 10°C
– Dinosaurs near
south pole
• Late Cretaceous
polar cooling
– Some extinctions
• Rudists
Paleogeography
• Oceans stagnated
– Epicontinental
black muds when
seas spilled over
– Normally thin
oxygen poor zone
expanded
 Cretaceous Mass Extinction
• Dinosaurs
• Ammonoids
• Mosasaurs and other marine reptiles
• Reductions in gymnosperms and angiosperms
• 90% calcareous nannoplanton and foraminifera
went extinct
• Meteor impact
– Iridium anomaly
– Extinction patterns
Cretaceous Mass Extinction
• Braarudisphaera
bigelowi
– Coccolithophore
(chalk-forming)
– Opportunistic
species
Tectonic Events inWestern U.S.
• Cordilleran
Mountain Building
– Continued
Franciscan
subduction
• Sevier Orogeny
Tectonic Events in Western U.S.
• Subduction angle
shifted
– Volcanism farther
inland
• Idaho and Nevada
Tectonic Events-Western U.S.
• Mowry Sea
– Oil shale
– By late Cretaceous
it extended to Gulf
of Mexico
• Cretaceous Interior
Seaway
• Bounded by barrier
island and alluvial
fans closest to
mountains
Tectonic Events in Western U.S.
• Mountain building generated sediments
– Conglomerate sediments
– Greater subsidence in the western reaches
Tectonic Events in Western U.S.
• Upper Cretaceous seaway
– Transgression followed by regression
Tectonic Events in Eastern U.S.
• Formation of the
continental shelf
– Accumulated
sediments in rift
basins
– Overlain by
Jurassic carbonates
– Siliclastic
sediments
Chalks of Europe
• Late Cretaceous
– Region was flooded
– High rates of
carbonate
accumulation (shells
of coccolithophores)
– 15 cm/year
• White Cliffs of Dover
• Denmark
Tectonic Events in Western U.S.
• Terminal Cretaceous iridium anomaly
• Drumheller, near Alberta, Canada
– Arrow points
to a thin clay
layer that
Contains the
anomaly
The Impact
• Microspherules
– Wyoming
 The Impact
• Striated dolomite from the • Chicxulub Crater
blast impact – Gravity anomalies