Cretaceous

Definition: Cretaceous

Cretaceous

Adjective

1. Abounding in chalk.

2. Of or relating to the Cretaceous geologic era; "cretaceous rocks".

Noun

1. From 63 million to 135 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants.

Date "cretaceous" was first used: sometime around 1675. (references)

Etymology: Cretaceous \Cre*ta"ceous\ (kr[-e]*t[=a]"sh[u^]s), adjective. [Latin cretaceus, from creta chalk. See Crayon.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definition
Mining	A. Applied to the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era. Extensive marine chalk beds were deposited during this period. b. Of the nature of chalk or relating to chalk. (references)
Science	A period in the geologic time scale that spans from 144 to 65 million years ago. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

This period is part of the

Mesozoic era.

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous is a geologic period that extends from about 65 to 135 million years before the present (see also geologic timescale).

As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified. The exact dates of the start of the period is uncertain by a few million years. The end of the period is placed at an iridium-rich layer found worldwide that is thought to be associated with a large impact crater in Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico that has been fairly tightly dated at 64.3 million years before the present. The asteroid collision is probably responsible for the major, and extensively studied, extinction event. The Cretaceous was named for the extensive beds of chalk found in the Upper Cretaceous of Britain and adjacent continental Europe. As the last period of the Mesozoic era, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic and proceeds the Paleocene.

The Cretaceous is usually separate into Lower and Upper subdivisions. The Faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:

Upper Cretaceous
- Maastrichtian (72-65 M.y.)
- Campanian (83-72 M.y.)
- Santonian (87-83 M.y.)
- Coniacian (88-87 M.y.)
- Turonian (92-88 M.y.)
- Cenomanian (96-92)
Lower Cretaceous
- Albian (108-96 M.y.)
- Aptian (113-108 M.y.)
- Barremian (117-113 M.y.)
- Hauterivian (123-117 M.y.)
- Valanginian (131-123 M.y.)
- Berriasian (135-131 M.y.)

During the Cretaceous, the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea completed its breakup into present day continents although their positions were substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, Gondwana broke up into Antarctica, Australia, Africa and South America. India and Madagascar remained attached to Africa. Within the continents, a broad shallow sea advanced across central North America and then started to recede leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between economically important coal beds. Other important Cretaceous exposures occur in Europe and China. In the area that is now India, massive lava beds called the Deccan Traps were laid down in the very late Creatceous and Early Paleocene. Climates were warm and even polar regions had no permanent ice.

On land, plants became quite modern, although the now-ubiquitous grasseses did not evolve until the end of the period. Flowering plants were widespread. Conifers thrived, as they do today. The first representatives of many modern trees fig, sycamore, and magnolia for example--appear in the Cretaceous. On land, mammals were small and still a relatively minor component of the fauna. The fauna was dominated by reptiles and especially by dinosaurs. Modern birds evolved. In the seas, rayss, modern sharks and fish became common. Marine reptiles and globotruncanid foraminiferids thrived. At the end of the Cretaceous, a significative number of marine forms including most shelled cephalopods (all ammonites, most nautilids), reef-forming rudist molluscs disappeared, as well as all marine reptiles except turtles and crocodiles. Dinosaurs are the most notorious of the Cretaceous extinction.

Synonym: Cretaceous

Synonym: Cretaceous period (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Oldness	Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene; Quaternary.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (1998)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Continental Carbonate Sedimentation and Pedogenesis: Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary of Southern France (Contributions to Sedimentology, 12) (reference) Cretaceous (Dinosaurs Undercover) (reference) Cretaceous Sea (reference) Fine-Grained Deposits and Biofacies of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway: Evidence of Cyclic Sedimentary Processes (reference) Looking At-- Spinosaurus: A Dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (The New Dinosaur Collection) (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Cretaceous Research (reference) (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies	T-Rex - Back to the Cretaceous (IMAX) (reference) T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Tyrannosaurus Sue : A Cretaceous Concerto (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Cretaceous" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 53.50% of the time. "Cretaceous" is used about 200 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (proper)	53.5%	107	31,463
Adjective (general or positive)	46.5%	93	34,067
Total	100.00%	200	N/A

Expressions using "cretaceous": Cretaceous acid ♦ Cretaceous formation ♦ cretaceous period ♦ the cretaceous period. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "cretaceous": cretaceous-early, Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
	Ending with "cretaceous": End-cretaceous, Mid-cretaceous.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "cretaceous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		Me Shkumës. (various references)

Arabic		‏طباشيري (chalky). (various references)

Bulgarian		�'аровит. (various references)

Chinese		白垩纪. (various references)

Czech		Křídový (chalky). (various references)

Dutch		Krýt (arena, chalk). (various references)

Esperanto		Kretaceo. (various references)

French		Crétacé (the cretaceous period). (various references)

German		Kretazeisch, Kreidehaltig (chalky), Kreide-. (various references)

Greek		�"υψώδησ. (various references)

Hungarian		krétaszerű (chalky), krétakorszak, krétakori, krétakor (Cretaceous age). (various references)

Italian		Cretaceo. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		白亜紀 (Cretaceous Period). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		はくあき (Cretaceous Period). (various references)

Manx		kelkagh (calcareous, calcic, chalky). (various references)

Pig Latin		etaceouscray

Portuguese		cretáceo, gredoso. (various references)

Romanian		Cretos, Cretacic. (various references)

Russian		Меловой. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		krićanski. (various references)

Spanish		Cretáceo. (various references)

Turkish		Tebeşirli (chalky), Tebeşirimsi, Mesozoik Dönemin Sonuna Ait. (various references)

Ukrainian		Крейдяний. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	cretaceus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Misspellings
	"Cretaceous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Caractacus, Cartaceum, ceraceous, coriaceous, cretacious. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-c-e-e-o-r-s-t-u"
	-1 letter: accouters, accoutres, cetaceous, cocreates, coruscate.
	-2 letters: accouter, accoutre, accretes, cocreate, coerects, ectosarc, outraces, reaccuse, secateur, stuccoer.
	-3 letters: accrete, accrues, accurst, accuser, acerose, acerous, acetose, acetous, austere, carouse, cerates, cesurae, coaster, coatees, coaters, coerces, coerect, coteaus, couters, creates, curates, ecartes, ocreate, outrace, roseate, scouter, surcoat, turacos.
	-4 letters: accost, accrue, accuse, actors, acuter, acutes, aretes, arouse.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-c-e-e-o-r-s-t-u"
	+3 letters: accouterments, accoutrements, countenancers, stercoraceous, unconsecrated.
	+4 letters: counterchanges, countercharges, countermarches.
	+5 letters: conceptualizers, counterbalances, counterinstance, electroacoustic, electrosurgical, overaccentuates.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day
cretaceous	39
cretaceous period	31
cretaceous dinosaur	6
cretaceous sea	5
coffee cretaceous house raptors	4
cretaceous end era	4
cretaceous plant	3
cretaceous line time	3
cretaceous fossil marine	3
cretaceous texas	2
clam cretaceous late	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Cretaceous

Definition: Cretaceous

Cretaceous

Adjective

Noun

Specialty Definition: Cretaceous

Specialty Definition: Cretaceous

Synonym: Cretaceous

Synonyms within Context: Cretaceous

Oldness

Crosswords: Cretaceous

Modern Usage: Cretaceous

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Cretaceous

Books

Periodicals

Theater & Movies

Music

Image Slideshow: Cretaceous

Illustrations:Cretaceous

Usage Frequency: Cretaceous

Expressions: Cretaceous

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Cretaceous

Modern Translation: Cretaceous

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Dutch

Esperanto

French

German

Greek

Hungarian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Manx

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Ancestral Language Translations: Cretaceous

Misspellings: Cretaceous

Misspellings

Anagrams: Cretaceous

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX

Illustrations:
Cretaceous