end-Cretaceous

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English

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Adjective

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end-Cretaceous (not comparable)

  1. (geology, paleontology) Pertaining to the end of the Cretaceous period, marked by a major extinction event.
    • 1988, Rona M Black, The Elements of Palaeontology, page 93:
      Towards the end of the Cretaceous diversity declined sharply and only a few widespread genera are found in the uppermost beds, these finally disappearing in the end-Cretaceous extinctions.
    • 2007, Clarence A Hall Jr., Introduction to the Geology of Southern California and Its Native Plants, page 100:
      Although the end-Cretaceous bolide impact is contemporaneous with the abrupt end of the reign of dinosaurs, early mammals survived the catastrophic event […].
    • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 187:
      The end Cretaceous catastrophe that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago did for these animals too and the oceans were quieter for a while, but within fifteen million years or so the ancestors of dolphins and whales were exploiting the rich seas of the Eocene.