Cretaceous Period: The Throne of Giants and Evolution’s Boldest Experiments
The Cretaceous Period, stretching from about 145 million to 66 million years ago, was one of the most fascinating chapters in Earth’s history. Popular imagination often reduces this era to the reign of dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, but the truth is far more captivating. This was a time when life experimented on every front—on land, in the oceans, and in the skies. From giant reptiles to towering plants, from monstrous marine predators to fragile first flowers, the Cretaceous was truly Earth’s throne of giants and boldest experiments in evolution. What Was the Cretaceous Period? The Cretaceous was the last period of the Mesozoic Era, following the Jurassic and preceding the Paleogene. Its very name comes from the Latin creta, meaning chalk, because of the extensive chalk deposits formed during this time. But beyond geology, this period is remembered as the final golden age of reptiles and the dawn of new life forms that would shape the modern world. Landscapes ...