The Cretaceous began after the Jurassic, with continents drifting further apart and new coastlines forming. The climate remained warm, creating diverse environments where dinosaurs flourished.
This period saw the greatest diversity of dinosaurs, as well as the rise of flowering plants which transformed ecosystems. Marine reptiles and flying pterosaurs also thrived.
The Cretaceous featured a warm greenhouse climate with high sea levels that created extensive shallow inland seas. Dense forests of conifers, cycads, and the newly evolved flowering plants (angiosperms) covered the land. These new plants co-evolved with insects, leading to increased pollination and diversification. The period saw the development of complex food webs with specialized predator-prey relationships. Coastal environments supported diverse marine life including ammonites, rudists, and large marine reptiles, while inland ecosystems ranged from dense forests to more open habitats that supported both giant sauropods and swift predators.
The Cretaceous ended 66 million years ago in a catastrophic mass extinction, most likely caused by a massive asteroid impact combined with volcanic activity. This event wiped out the all the non-avian dinosaurs and many marine species, marking the dawn of the Cenozoic Era.