| Abstract from DBPedia | The Cretaceous ( /krəˈteɪʃəs/ krə-TAY-shəs) 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. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin creta, "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth by the end of the Cretaceous, coincident with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups. The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary), a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction that lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras.白亜紀（はくあき、白堊紀、Cretaceous period）とは、地球の地質時代の一つで、約1億4,500万年前から6,600万年前を指す。この時代は、前のジュラ紀から続く中生代の最後の時代である。次の時代は、新生代古第三紀の暁新世である。 「白堊」の「堊（アク; アと読むのは慣習）」の字は粘土質な土、すなわち石灰岩を意味し、石灰岩の地層から設定された地質年代のため白堊紀の名がついた。また「白亜」の「亜」は、「堊」の同音の漢字による書きかえである。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cretaceous) |
