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Cretaceous period

Cretaceous period (kritā'shus) [key], third and last period of the Mesozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, table), lasting from approximately 144 to 65 million years ago. The Cretaceous was marked, in both North America and Europe, by extensive submergences of the continents. Changes both in the earth's surface and in its flora and fauna brought the Mesozoic to a close.

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The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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Isotopic signals from late Jurassic-early Cretaceous (Volgian-Valanginian) sub-Arctic belemnites, Yatria River, Western Siberia (Journal of the Geological Society)

Atmospheric pCO2 and depositional environment from stable-isotope geochemistry of calcrete nodules (barremian, lower cretaceous, Wealden Beds, England) (Journal of the Geological Society)

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The perfect fossil: to a museum entomologist, studying a cretaceous insect exquisitely preserved in amber is a very close second to seeing the living thing. (At The Museum).(Brief Article) (Natural History)

Ages and cooling history of the Early Cretaceous Caleu pluton: testimony of a switch from a rifted to a compressional continental margin in central Chile (Journal of the Geological Society)

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