Eras

Cretaceous

kri-TAY-shus

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Cretaceous." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/eras/cretaceous.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Cretaceous. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/eras/cretaceous

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-cretaceous,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Cretaceous},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/eras/cretaceous},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The last period of the Mesozoic, the longest period of the Phanerozoic, and the setting for the asteroid strike that ended the non-avian dinosaurs and closed the era.

Facts

Rank

Period 1

Start (Million Years Ago)

143.1 1

Cited article gives 143.1 plus or minus 0.6 Mya.

End (Million Years Ago)

66 1

Key Event

The Chicxulub impact and the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, ending the period and the Mesozoic era together. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Caused By

Chicxulub Impact

The impact is the primary accepted cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction that ends this period.

Source Chicxulub Crater (Wikipedia)

In Discipline

Geochronology

Source Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)

Part Of

Mesozoic

Source Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)

Sources

1. Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationView the Source

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