| / English Dictionary |
CRETACEOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
From 135 million to 63 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants
Synonyms:
Cretaceous; Cretaceous period
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Instance hypernyms:
geological period; period (a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed)
Holonyms ("Cretaceous" is a part of...):
Age of Reptiles; Mesozoic; Mesozoic era (from 230 million to 63 million years ago)
Derivation:
Cretaceous (of or relating to or denoting the third period of the Mesozoic era)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or relating to or denoting the third period of the Mesozoic era
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
Cretaceous (from 135 million to 63 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants)
Derivation:
Cretaceous (from 135 million to 63 million years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insects and flowering plants)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Abounding in chalk
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
chalk (a soft whitish calcite)
Context examples:
This discovery suggests that the fauna of northern and southern Africa were very different in the Cretaceous Period.
(Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod dinosaur in Tanzania, National Science Foundation)
Rukwatitan bisepultus lived approximately 100 million years ago during the middle of the Cretaceous Period.
(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)
Its partial skeleton was recovered from Cretaceous Period rocks exposed in a cliff surface in the western branch of the East African Rift System.
(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)
They dated the fossil to the Cretaceous period, roughly 99 million years ago, the same period as Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and early mammals, sharks, and flowering plants.
(Cretaceous baby snake fossil found in Myanmar, Wikinews)
During the tectonically active Cretaceous Period, southern Africa lost Madagascar and Antarctica as they split off to the east and south, followed by the gradual northward unzipping of South America.
(Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod dinosaur in Tanzania, National Science Foundation)
In addition to providing new data about species evolution in sub-Saharan Africa, the results contribute to fleshing out the portrait of titanosaurians, which lived in habitats across the globe through the end of the Cretaceous period.
(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)
Titanosaurs are best known from Cretaceous rocks in South America, but efforts by the team include new titanosaur species discovered in Tanzania, Egypt and other parts of the African continent.
(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)
Shingopana roamed the Cretaceous landscape alongside Rukwatitan bisepultus, another titanosaur the team described and named in 2014.
(Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod dinosaur in Tanzania, National Science Foundation)
A dinosaur that wore its heart on its tail is providing new clues to how ecosystems evolved on the African continent during the Cretaceous Period some 100 million years ago, according to researchers at Ohio University.
(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)
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