Cretaceous

The Cretaceous was a period in early Earth history spanning from 145,000,000 or 136,000,000 to 65,500,000 or 65,000,000 BC, (PROSE: Prehistory Repeating Itself ^[+]Loading...["Prehistory Repeating Itself (feature)"], The Universal Databank ^[+]Loading...["The Universal Databank (reference book)"]) in which the dinosaurs, such as tsintaosaurus, dsungaripterus, protoceratops, velociraptor, ankylosaurs, tyrannosaurs, bactrosaurs and Alioramus, thrived. (PROSE: Living in the Past ^[+]Loading...["Living in the Past (short story)"])

Gondwana split into South America, Antarctica, Australia and India; in the north, Laurasia began to split into what would become North America and Asia. The diverging continents gave rise to diverging species of dinosaurs. Pterosaurs lost their dominance in the skies to the growing numbers of birds. Insects of various kinds evolved, including bees that pollinated the newly-evolved flowering plants.

The Cretaceous was the warmest period in Earth's history since the Devonian; the atmosphere was hot and dense, allowing land creatures to reach sizes never seen before or since. Tiny mammals survived in minor ecological niches, scavenging much like the ancestors of the dinosaurs did during the Triassic.

This period ended with another extinction event, referred to as the K-T event. An asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, throwing up a thick cloud of dust that blocked out the Sun. Temperatures fell across the planet. In the ensuing winter, the larger animals died out, leaving the planet to the smaller, more adaptable survivors. (PROSE: Prehistory Repeating Itself ^[+]Loading...["Prehistory Repeating Itself (feature)"])

During the Cretaceous, Silurians kept dinosaurs as pets. (GAME: Lost in Time ^[+]Loading...["Lost in Time (video game)"], AUDIO: Symmetry of Death ^[+]Loading...["Symmetry of Death (audio story)"]) Madame Vastra grew up in the Cretaceous period, (AUDIO: Symmetry of Death ^[+]Loading...["Symmetry of Death (audio story)"]) 65 million years before the 19th century. (AUDIO: The Cars That Ate London! ^[+]Loading...["The Cars That Ate London! (audio story)"], The Ghosts of Greenwich ^[+]Loading...["The Ghosts of Greenwich (audio story)"]) However, according to other accounts, the Silurians were contemporaneous with early man. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"])

Ace once asked the Seventh Doctor if they could visit Earth during the upper Cretaceous, a time which the Doctor, considered a "very good time for dinosaurs". (TV: The Happiness Patrol ^[+]Loading...["The Happiness Patrol (TV story)"]) Later, the Doctor dropped off Ace in the Cretaceous period, then travelled on his own for a time. (COMIC: Train-Flight ^[+]Loading...["Train-Flight (comic story)"]) He eventually returned to Mongolia in the upper Cretaceous, around 75,000,000 BC. Along the way he encountered a pit of dholes and an alien slave who had escaped from a nearby construction site. Ace arrived with a herd of dinosaurs to trample the site, destroying it and freeing the slaves. (PROSE: Living in the Past ^[+]Loading...["Living in the Past (short story)"])

On another occasion, the Sixth Doctor guessed the Rani had popped back to the Cretaceous age to collect embryos of the Tyrannosaurus rex. (TV: The Mark of the Rani ^[+]Loading...["The Mark of the Rani (TV story)"]) Later, the Time Lady meant to use a Time Manipulator to come back to this age and avert the extinction of the dinosaurs (TV: Time and the Rani ^[+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"]) which happened around 65,000,000 BC. (TV: Earthshock ^[+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"])