Crétacé

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a spinosaurid from the Middle Cretaceous of Egypt

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a spinosaurid from the Middle Cretaceous of Egypt

Comptonatus is an iguanodontid ornithopod dinosaur that lived about 125 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous of what is now Europe. It was a medium sized herbivore at about 7 m in length, and weighed around 1 t in body mass. Fossilized footprints found near the original specimen indicate that Comptonatus was likely a herding animal. Comparisons between Comptonatus and other iguanodontids that lived around the same time and region show a high rate of diversity. This indicates there may have been pressure for speedy evolutionary adaptation in the region, or perhaps a high volume of migration.

Ancient landscape across the Cretaceous/Paleogene time interval in central Patagonia. Main floristic types from the Danian: Podocarps, Cheirolepidiaceae, palms. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052455.g007

Iron trapped in Cretaceous limestone, forming tables

Limestone cliff with the stratigraphic stage of Cretaceous Coniacian near the eponym town of Cognac, Charente, Poitou-Charentes, France.

crétacé limestone at Cognac, Charente, SW France

Cretaceous limestone at Cognac, Charente, SW France

Ivy and limestone cliff of Cretaceous Coniacian, Cognac, Charente, France.

Limestone Cretaceous cornices (Coniacian type), valley of the river Voultron; Blanzaguet-Saint-Cybard, Charente, France.

Quarry called “Ratssteinbruch” at Plauenscher Grund (gorge-like valley of the river Weißeritz nearby/in the city of Dresden, Saxony, Germany), Upper Carboniferous Monzonite (historically identified as Syenite) of the Meißen Massif (Paleozoic basement) unconformably overlain by Upper Cenomanian beds of the Dölzschen Formation, yellowish basal conglomerate and overlying bluish silty clay-marlstone (“plenus-Pläner”) of the Saxo-Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (Mesozoic platform).[1]

landscape of Montmorélien (Cretaceous Campanian), Charente, SW France

A fossil tree from the Coal Creek region, Fruitland Formation, latest Cretaceous (Late Campanian), San Juan Basin, New Mexico

Holotype skull of the centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur Diabloceratops eatoni from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of the Wahweap Formation, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photograph by Nick Longrich, 2023.

Outcrops of the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) aged Aguja Formation, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA

Mawsonia , giant coelocanth from the Cretaceous period (Albian and Cenomanian stages) of South America and North Africa