The Cretaceous world and the first flowers
The last and longest act of the age of dinosaurs
Quick facts
- Span
- 145 to 66 million years ago
- Place in time
- The last period of the Mesozoic Era
- Plants
- Flowering plants (angiosperms) spread and diversified
- Flowering plants today
- About 90% of all plant species
What happened
The Cretaceous Period began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago, the last period of the Mesozoic Era and the final act of the age of dinosaurs. During it, flowering plants, known as angiosperms, spread and diversified; today about 90 percent of plant species are flowering plants. This was the world of many of the most famous dinosaurs, a warm planet with no polar ice caps, right up until the moment it ended.
Why it matters
The Cretaceous is the stage for the climax of this timeline. It produced the animals most people picture when they think of dinosaurs, and its abrupt end 66 million years ago is the single most famous extinction in Earth's history. The rise of flowering plants during it also reshaped the food web in ways that still define the living world.
How we know
The Natural History Museum dates the Cretaceous to 145 to 66 million years ago, identifies it as the last period of the Mesozoic, and states that flowering plants spread during it, making up about 90 percent of plant species today.
Sources
- Natural History Museum, London. The Cretaceous Period: what was Earth like before dinosaurs went extinct? (Natural History Museum) (2024) · Reputable sourcenhm.ac.uk · The domain "nhm.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- A critical transition in leaf evolution facilitated the Cretaceous angiosperm revolution (PNAS, 2012, via PubMed Central) (2012) · Peer-reviewed (author-declared)pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineAge of Dinosaurs21 events · The age of the dinosaurs across the Mesozoic Era, from the Great Dying that cleared the way to the asteroid that ended their reign.View all →