Crétacé

landscape of Montmorélien (Cretaceous Campanian), Charente, SW France

A fossil tree from the Coal Creek region, Fruitland Formation, latest Cretaceous (Late Campanian), San Juan Basin, New Mexico

Holotype skull of the centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur Diabloceratops eatoni from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of the Wahweap Formation, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photograph by Nick Longrich, 2023.

Outcrops of the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) aged Aguja Formation, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA

Mawsonia , giant coelocanth from the Cretaceous period (Albian and Cenomanian stages) of South America and North Africa

Life restoration of Cearadactylus atrox. Based on figure 2 of "On the systematic relationships of Cearadactylus atrox, an enigmatic Early Cretaceous pterosaur from the Santana Formation of Brazil" by D. M. Unwin Mitteilungen Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Geowissenschaftlichen Reihe 5: 239-263

A map showing the distribution of paraves in Late Cretaceous with the respective paleogeographic setting.

A map showing the distribution of paraves in Early Cretaceous with respective paleogeographic setting.

Diuqin is an unenlagiine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Argentina. Unenlagiines, known exclusively from South America, are usually classified as dromaeosaurs though this is sometimes debated. Like dromaeosaurs, they were covered in feathers, carnivorous, and had the large sickle-like claw on the inner toe of each foot. Unique to unenlagiines is their elongated snout, suggesting a piscivorous diet. Diuqin was a medium-sized unenlagiine, at about 4 m in length.

Figure 1. Evolution of macroecological traits in Dinosauria. Large scale event in dinosaur evolution (a); the origin of dinosaurs (star), hyperthermals (volcano), the earliest fossil Avialae (bird), the earliest fossil angiosperm (flower), the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction (asteroid). Phylogeny of dinosaurs (b) redrawn from Sereno and adapted to the current consensus and upon which an ancestral state reconstruction of temperature niche (mean annual temperature) after Chiarenza et al. is plotted; Mesozoic palaeogeographies (c) for Triassic (T), Jurassic (J) and Cretaceous (K). Silhouette colours symbolize body mass for each of the taxa represented; information on dietary habits are plotted after Barrett and Zanno & Makovicky; numbers represent clades discussed through this study: 1, Ornithischia; 2, Thyreophora; 3, Ornithopoda; 4, Hadrosauroidea; 5, Marginocephalia; 6, Ceratopsia; 7, Saurischia; 8, Sauropodomorpha; 9, Sauropoda; 10, Theropoda; 11, Ceratosauria; 12, Tetanurae; 13, Coelurosauria; 14, Maniraptoriformes; 15, Maniraptora; 16, Deinonychosauria; 17, Avialae; 18, Ornithothoraces. Palaeogeographies modified from original plots via R package ‘mapast’ using plate models by Scotese.

A photograph of partial specimen American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 22555, skull without mandible, of Anhanguera sp. (formerly often assigned to Anhanguera santanae),[1] from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation (former Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation) of NE Brazil in right lateral view.

A photograph of partial specimen American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 22555, anterior dorsal vertebrae, dorsal ribs and partial shoulder girdle (at least right scapula) of Anhanguera sp. (formerly often assigned to Anhanguera santanae),[1] from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation (former Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation) of NE Brazil in dorsal view.

A photograph of partial specimen American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 22555, posterior dorsal vertebrae, and the sacrum and pelvis (both iliae, and right ischium and pubis) of Anhanguera sp. (formerly often assigned to Anhanguera santanae),[1] from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation (former Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation) of NE Brazil in dorsal view.

Reconstitution d'un Tylosaurus rex dans la voie maritime intérieure occidentale de l'Amérique du Nord, datant de l'époque du Crétacé.

Elasmosaurus platyurus, plesiosaurian from Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America

Elasmosaurus platyurus, plesiosaurian from Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America