The Cretaceous Period

The peak and end of the dinosaurs’ reign

At no other time was animal life on Earth as gigantic as in the Cretaceous period. Between 144 million and 65 million years ago, the largest animals of all time lived on what is now the continent of South America: for example, Argentinosaurus, a 35-metre-long herbivore, and Giganotosaurus, a carnivore over 12 metres long. On the other hand, on today's continent of North America, the most famous and most feared dinosaur evolved: Tyrannosaurus rex.

In the Cretaceous period, as in the Jurassic period, there was a stable, warm climate in which new plants could develop, for example, flowering plants as we know them today.

With the emergence of the flowering plants, which pushed back many ferns, the first forms of pollinators also developed among the insects: the bees.

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the climate became colder, volcanic eruptions polluted the air, and the population of dinosaurs declined sharply. The real catastrophe happened 65 million years ago: an asteroid the size of Mount Everest hit the Gulf of Mexico and wiped out 40 percent of all life on Earth.

This included all dinosaurs, mosasaurs, ammonites, and pterosaurs. This event, also known as the C/T event, marks the transition from the Cretaceous period to the Tertiary era. The reign of the mighty reptiles had come to an end. The previous supporting actors advanced into the power vacuum and established themselves on the throne of evolutionary history for the next 65 million years: curtain up for the Age of Mammals.