Dinosaurs rule over their empire ruthlessly, their dominion unchallenged by the upstart mammals. Enormous pterosaurs rule the skies, though birds are filling niches successfully. The Cretaceous doesn't open with a big dramatic event, but over the next 79 million years, the world will transform gradually and profoundly.
The continents are being ripped apart rapidly. The Atlantic widens; South America and Africa complete their separation; India races northward as an island continent. Sea levels rise 100–200 meters (330–660 feet) above today's, flooding continental interiors and splitting landmasses in two: North America is divided by the Western Interior Seaway, a warm shallow sea stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. Isolated by these new oceans, each continent becomes its own evolutionary laboratory.
And then something truly extraordinary happens. Flowering plants ("angiosperms") appear and begin to take over. They co-evolve with insects; bees, beetles, and butterflies spread their pollen. By the Late Cretaceous, flowers dominate landscapes that conifers held for 200 million years. Dinosaurs diversify in step: hadrosaurs evolve battery teeth for tough vegetation; ceratopsians radiate into dozens of species; Tyrannosaurus rex stalks the final 2 million years of the period as its most iconic predator.
Then, 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid strikes the Yucatán Peninsula. Darkness, acid rain, and the collapse of food chains worldwide. Three-quarters of all species are gone. The non-avian dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, the mosasaurs… all gone. The mammals, the birds, and the crocodilians inherit an emptied world. The age we live in begins.
Key Events
145 Mya
Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary Begins New Era
125 Mya
Flowering Plants Transform Terrestrial Ecosystems
110 Mya
Western Interior Seaway Splits North America
94 Mya
Cenomanian-Turonian Thermal Maximum Peaks
80 Mya
Tyrannosaurids Dominate Northern Continents
66 Mya
Chicxulub Impact Ends Mesozoic Era
Life in the Cretaceous
The Cretaceous fauna is the one we know. Tyrannosaurus rex stalks the final 2 million years of the period across western North America. Triceratops and its ceratopsian relatives graze in herds. Ankylosaurus swings a tail club capable of snapping bones. Hadrosaurs, the 'duckbilled dinosaurs', are among the most numerous large animals on the planet, hundreds of species browsing on flowering plants across every northern continent. On other landmasses, titanosaur sauropods still reach absurd sizes: Argentinosaurus becoming possibly the largest land animal ever. Above the treeline, Quetzalcoatlus, with a 10-meter (33-foot) wingspan, soars like a flying giraffe. The Cretaceous is the peak of the dinosaur experiment, 1,000+ species and counting, right up until the moment, the single day in earth's history, that ends it all.
The World of the Cretaceous
The Cretaceous opened with the supercontinent Pangaea already fractured, and over the next 79 million years, the Atlantic Ocean widened as South America and Africa separated, while India broke free from Madagascar and began its northward journey toward Asia. Sea levels rose dramatically—reaching 200-300 meters higher than today—flooding continental interiors and creating vast shallow seaways like the Western Interior Seaway that split North America in two from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. This high-water world produced warm, equable climates from pole to pole, with no permanent ice caps and crocodilians living above the Arctic Circle. Unlike the earlier Jurassic, which featured more connected landmasses and cooler seaways, or the following Paleogene with its dropping seas and cooling climate, the Cretaceous represented a peak of continental fragmentation and marine transgression that isolated dinosaur populations on separate landm
Species of the Cretaceous
95 species in the DinoVault collection
Abelisaurus comahuensis
7.4m long
Acrocanthosaurus atokensis
11.5m long
Albertosaurus sarcophagus
9m long
Amargasaurus cazaui
10m long
Ankylosaurus magniventris
7.5m long
Aquilops americanus
0.6m long
Argentinosaurus huinculensis
33m long
Bactrosaurus johnsoni
6m long
Bambiraptor feinbergorum
0.9m long
Baryonyx walkeri
8.5m long
Beipiaosaurus inexpectus
2.2m long
Borealopelta markmitchelli
5.5m long
Brachylophosaurus canadensis
9m long
Carcharodontosaurus saharicus
12m long
Carnotaurus sastrei
7.8m long
Caudipteryx zoui
0.9m long
Centrosaurus apertus
5.5m long
Citipati osmolskae
2.8m long
Concavenator corcovatus
6m long
Corythosaurus casuarius
8.5m long
Deinocheirus mirificus
11m long
Deinonychus antirrhopus
3.4m long
Diabloceratops eatoni
5.5m long
Dilong paradoxus
1.6m long
Dracorex hogwartsia
3m long
Dreadnoughtus schrani
26m long
Edmontonia rugosidens
6.6m long
Edmontosaurus regalis
9m long
Elasmosaurus platyurus
10.3m long
Euoplocephalus tutus
5.5m long
Gallimimus bullatus
6m long
Gastonia burgei
5m long
Giganotosaurus carolinii
12.5m long
Gigantoraptor erlianensis
8m long
Gorgosaurus libratus
8.5m long
Hadrosaurus foulkii
7m long
Hypacrosaurus altispinus
9m long
Hypsilophodon foxii
1.8m long
Iguanodon bernissartensis
10m long
Irritator challengeri
6.5m long
Kayrasaurus changliensis
3.6m long
Kosmoceratops richardsoni
4.5m long
Kronosaurus queenslandicus
10m long
Lambeosaurus lambei
9m long
Leaellynasaura amicagraphica
0.9m long
Maiasaura peeblesorum
9m long
Majungasaurus crenatissimus
6.5m long
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii
8m long
Mei long
0.53m long
Microraptor gui
0.65m long
Minmi paravertebra
2.5m long
Mosasaurus hoffmannii
13m long
Muttaburrasaurus langdoni
7m long
Nanuqsaurus hoglundi
6m long
Nigersaurus taqueti
9m long
Nyctosaurus gracilis
2m long
Ornithomimus edmontonicus
3.8m long
Ouranosaurus nigeriensis
7.5m long
Oviraptor philoceratops
1.6m long
Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis
4.5m long
Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis
6m long
Panoplosaurus mirus
5.5m long
Parasaurolophus walkeri
9.5m long
Patagotitan mayorum
37m long
Pentaceratops sternbergii
6m long
Protoceratops andrewsi
1.8m long
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis
2m long
Pteranodon longiceps
1.8m long
Quetzalcoatlus northropi
6m long
Rapetosaurus krausei
15m long
Rugops primus
6m long
Saltasaurus loricatus
12m long
Sauroposeidon proteles
27m long
Scipionyx samniticus
0.24m long
Shantungosaurus giganteus
15m long
Sinoceratops zhuchengensis
6m long
Sinosauropteryx prima
1m long
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus
14m long
Stygimoloch spinifer
3m long
Styracosaurus albertensis
5.5m long
Suchomimus tenerensis
10.5m long
Tarbosaurus bataar
10m long
Tenontosaurus tilletti
6.5m long
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
9.5m long
Thescelosaurus neglectus
3.5m long
Triceratops horridus
8.5m long
Troodon formosus
2.4m long
Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus
8.3m long
Tupandactylus imperator
2.5m long
Tyrannosaurus rex
12.3m long
Utahraptor ostrommaysorum
5.5m long
Velociraptor mongoliensis
2m long
Wannanosaurus yansiensis
0.6m long
Yutyrannus huali
9m long
Zuul crurivastator
6m long