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The Cretaceous (IPA: / k r ɪ ˈ t eɪ ʃ ə s / krih-TAY-shəss) [2] is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest.
The North American land-mammal-age system was formalized in 1941 as a series of provincial land-mammal ages. [2] The system was the standard for correlations in the terrestrial Cenozoic record of North America and was the source for similar time scales dealing with other continents.
Geologic time is the timescale used to calculate dates in the planet's geologic history from its origin (currently estimated to have been some 4,600 million years ago) to the present day. Radiometric dating measures the steady decay of radioactive elements in an object to determine its age. It is used to calculate dates for the older part of ...
The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronology (a scientific branch of geology that aims to determine the age of rocks).
In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age/stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It has been taken to span the time between 143.1 ±0.6 Ma and 137.05 ± 0.2 (million years ago). [2] The Berriasian succeeds the Tithonian (part of the Jurassic) and precedes the Valanginian.
Harold Urey argued that comet impacts may have caused mass extinctions in the past and may have been responsible for demarcating the periods of the geologic time scale. [27] 1974. Jan Smit began studying the extinction of foraminifera at the K–T boundary in Caravaca, Spain. He observed that some of these extinctions must have been rapid. [28 ...
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after creta, the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk.
Geochronological units are periods of time, thus it is correct to say that Tyrannosaurus rex lived during the Late Cretaceous Epoch. [16] Chronostratigraphic units are geological material, so it is also correct to say that fossils of the genus Tyrannosaurus have been found in the Upper Cretaceous Series. [17]