Cretaceous

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/cretaceous

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the geological epoch?Final period of the Mesozoic Era, preceding the Paleogene
2. What is the absolute dating?Approximately 143.1 to 66 million years before present
3. What was the Cretaceous period?The Cretaceous was the last and longest part of the age when dinosaurs ruled, lasting about 77 million years from 143 to 66 million years ago.
4. Why were there so many seas during the Cretaceous?The Earth was very warm and had no polar ice, so sea levels rose high and covered many land areas, creating big shallow seas.

Phanerozoic Eon: The current geologic eon, spanning the last 541 million years, characterized by abundant animal life.
Epicontinental Seas: Shallow seas that flooded large areas of continental landmasses, common during the Cretaceous.
Chicxulub Crater: A massive impact structure in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, linked to the K-Pg extinction event.
Coccolithophores: Microscopic marine algae whose calcium carbonate plates form the bulk of Cretaceous chalk deposits.