The Cretaceous Period: dinosaurs, fossils and a changing world

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• Adamisaurus

  Adamisaurus magnidentatus explained through Gobi skulls, robust jaws, expanded teeth, debated relationships and the limits of dietary reconstruction.

• Bainguis

  Bainguis parvus is based chiefly on a damaged skull from Bayn Dzak; later CT study reassigned material once attributed to the genus and left its wider affinities unresolved.

• Boipeba

  A vertebra from Brazil’s Adamantina Formation identifies Boipeba as a Cretaceous blind snake; its metre-scale length and placement come from comparative analyses.

• Carusia

  Carusia intermedia is a small Campanian lizard from Mongolia, known from numerous skulls with a sculptured roof and a debated place among anguimorphs.

• Erdenetesaurus

  Erdenetesaurus robinsonae is a Late Cretaceous lizard from Mongolia known from a skull and limited associated bones; complex teeth and incomplete remains constrain ecological claims.

• Hoyalacerta

  Hoyalacerta sanzi is a small Barremian lizard from Las Hoyas, Spain, known from a nearly complete slab-and-counter-slab skeleton. Its long trunk, short limbs and simple teeth are measurable, while its exact position among early squamates remains debated.

• Jucaraseps

  Jucaraseps grandipes is a minute Early Cretaceous lizard from Las Hoyas, Spain. Its articulated skeleton preserves an elongated trunk and unusually large feet, while their precise function is unknown.

• Parviderma

  Parviderma inexacta is a Late Cretaceous lizard from Khulsan, known from a partial skull and lower jaw. Its rough skull-roof bones are fossil evidence; a complete body covering and exact relationships remain uncertain.

• Polrussia

  Polrussia mongoliensis is a very small Late Cretaceous iguanian known from a skull about 12 millimetres long at Khulsan, Mongolia. Its teeth and cranial anatomy are informative, while total body size and precise relationships remain uncertain.

• Proplatynotia

  Proplatynotia longirostrata is a Late Cretaceous lizard from Khulsan, Mongolia, known from one damaged skull and lower jaw. Its elongated snout and tooth-bearing bones are documented, but its family placement and body form remain uncertain.

• Scandensia

  Scandensia ciervensis is a small lizard from the Barremian Las Hoyas site in Spain. Its unusual ribs and feet prompted a climbing interpretation, while a second fossil added osteoderms and more limb detail; behaviour and exact phylogenetic position remain inferential.

• Sineoamphisbaena

  Sineoamphisbaena hexatabularis is a Late Cretaceous squamate from Inner Mongolia. Its consolidated skull and associated postcranial fossils prompted an early amphisbaenian identification, but later analyses place it among other lizard lineages or leave its position unresolved.

• Telmasaurus

  Telmasaurus grangeri is a Late Cretaceous lizard known from skull material found at Bayn Dzak and Khulsan in Mongolia. Its cranial anatomy distinguishes it from a straightforward monitor-lizard identification, while its exact position within Anguimorpha remains debated.

• Tijubina

  Tijubina pontei is a Late Cretaceous lizard from Brazil’s Crato Formation, known from one articulated juvenile skeleton with preserved scale impressions. Its anatomy confirms a squamate, though its exact branch and adult size remain uncertain.

• Xiaophis

  Xiaophis myanmarensis is a tiny snake from about 99-million-year-old Myanmar amber. Its articulated rear body preserves vertebrae, scales and juvenile features, while a second amber piece contains probable shed skin; the skull and most of the body are absent.

• Aiolosaurus

  Aiolosaurus oriens from Late Cretaceous Mongolia explained through its incomplete skull, jaws, partial skeleton, varanoid affinities and arid habitat.

• Bicuspidon

  Bicuspidon numerosus from Utah is represented by numerous jaws and teeth whose changing crown shapes document dental specialisation and probable growth-related variation.

• Chamops

  Chamops segnis is a Late Cretaceous North American lizard diagnosed chiefly from fragmentary jaws whose multicusped teeth do not reveal a precise diet.

• Cherminotus

  Cherminotus longifrons is a small Campanian lizard from Mongolia whose incomplete skulls inform, but do not settle, its relationship to living monitor relatives.

• Cimolopteryx: a Cretaceous bird known from fragmentary bones

  Cimolopteryx rara is anchored by a Late Cretaceous coracoid from Wyoming. Other species assignments and its place among birds remain disputed because the fossils are fragmentary.

• Dakotasuchus

  Dakotasuchus kingi is identified from a rare combination of vertebrae, shoulder bones and armour. Its skull has never been securely found, and published length estimates depend on incomplete postcranial remains.

• Obamadon

  Obamadon gracilis is a small latest Cretaceous lizard named from two fragmentary jaws. Its tall, three-cusped teeth are distinctive, but its body, diet and final appearance remain uncertain.

• Ovoo

  Ovoo gurvel is a small Campanian lizard known from a partial skull at Little Ukhaa, Mongolia. Its unusual bones between the nasal and frontal may be unique, while its ancestry and habits remain uncertain.

• Koolasuchus: the cool-climate temnospondyl of Australia

  Koolasuchus is known from fragmentary jaws and scattered bones in Early Cretaceous Victoria. Its three-metre body and persistence in a cool forested region are inferred.

• Squalicorax

  Squalicorax was a widespread Late Cretaceous shark known from distinctive serrated teeth, rare associated skeletons and bite traces on marine and terrestrial vertebrates.

• Small Cretaceous dinosaurs beyond the giants

  Alvarezsaurids, small ceratopsians and other Cretaceous dinosaurs occupied varied niches, though fragile fossils make their diversity hard to measure.

• Late Cretaceous wetlands: reconstructing the landscape beneath the mist

  Reconstruct late Cretaceous wetlands from sediments, fossil soils and plants. Hell Creek shows a shifting floodplain mosaic, not one permanently foggy global swamp.

• Cretaceous paleosols: what ancient soils reveal about climate

  Buried Cretaceous soils preserve roots, minerals and isotopes that help reconstruct local environments, with limits set by seasonality and later alteration.

• Polar dinosaurs – life through months of changing light

  High-latitude Cretaceous fossils record dinosaurs living in forests through strong seasonal changes in daylight, food supply and climate.

• Cretaceous storms in the fossil record

  Storm-laid shell beds and preserved footprints reveal energetic Cretaceous shorelines, while the rocks do not support a single global story of ever-stronger hurricanes.

• Mosasaurs in Cretaceous seas: predators and shared niches

  How mosasaur bones, teeth, stomach contents and isotopes reveal marine reptile ecology without reducing Cretaceous seas to a single predator hierarchy.

• Did giant herbivores shape Cretaceous landscapes?

  Large herbivorous dinosaurs affected plants and habitats, but the scale of their ecosystem engineering is inferred from fossils and remains an active research question.

• Cretaceous rudists: shell beds, platforms and the reef debate

  Rudists were abundant Cretaceous bivalves, but many shell beds were not coral-like reefs. Their fossils record varied carbonate-platform habitats.

• How the South Atlantic opened during the Cretaceous

  Magnetic stripes, fracture zones and margin rocks record the gradual breakup of South America and Africa and the northward opening of the South Atlantic.

• Cretaceous polar forests and the evidence for a warm southern world

  Roots, pollen and climate models from Antarctica show how a temperate rainforest could grow near the South Pole during the Cretaceous greenhouse interval.

• When mammals became predators: what fossils show

  Mammalian predation did not begin with modern carnivores. Fossils such as Repenomamus reveal direct feeding evidence, while broader predator histories require careful inference.

• Cretaceous horns and armour: weapons, signals and evidence

  Ceratopsian horns, ankylosaur osteoderms and other weapons had different histories and functions. Fossils do not support one simple arms-race story.

• The geological evidence for the K–Pg extinction

  Iridium, shocked minerals, ejecta and the Chicxulub crater connect an impact to the end-Cretaceous boundary. The rocks also show what remains uncertain about volcanism and recovery.

• Late Cretaceous sauropods across the continents

  Explore the changing record of Late Cretaceous sauropods, from South American titanosaurs to Alamosaurus, while separating fossil evidence from size estimates.

• Cretaceous climate: warmth, oceans and polar forests

  Proxy records show a warm Cretaceous climate that varied through time and place, from greenhouse oceans to temperate polar forests.

• Cretaceous forests: conifers, ferns and the rise of flowers

  Fossil pollen, leaves, wood and flowers reveal varied Cretaceous plant communities and the gradual ecological expansion of flowering plants.

• Triceratops and its predators: what the fossils show

  What Triceratops fossils reveal about its horns, frill and contact with predators, and what they cannot tell us about a particular fight.

• Marine reptiles of the Cretaceous seas

  Mosasaurids and plesiosaurs occupied diverse Cretaceous seas, while changing coastlines and fossil sampling shape what is known.

• When did flowering plants begin? Fossils and molecular clocks

  Unequivocal flowering-plant fossils are Cretaceous, while a 2026 fossil-calibrated molecular study estimates a Late Jurassic origin for the living group.

• How tyrannosaurs lived: evidence from fossils

  Fossils show powerful tyrannosaur predators and changing juvenile anatomy, while pack hunting and territorial behaviour remain open questions.

• Jurassic vs Cretaceous periods

  Compare the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods by dates, continents, climate, plants, dinosaur groups, marine life and the events that ended each interval.

• Achillesaurus: a heel bone and a taxonomic question

  Achillesaurus manazzonei is known from a partial skeleton from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation. Its hind-limb anatomy helped define an alvarezsaurid, though later work has questioned how distinct the genus is from related forms.

• Acheroraptor

  Acheroraptor explained through its Hell Creek upper jaw, referred dentary, ridged teeth, uncertain body size and changing dromaeosaurid classification.

• Achelousaurus: a ceratopsid with rounded skull bosses

  Achelousaurus from the Late Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation: its skull bosses, frill, herbivorous diet and the limits of behavioural interpretation.

• Acanthopholis: an armoured dinosaur without a secure diagnosis

  Acanthopholis horrida is usually treated as a nomen dubium. Explore Huxley's Kent fossils, surviving BGS specimens and the limits of the reconstruction.

• Acantholipan: a Mexican nodosaurid known from fragments

  Explore Acantholipan gonzalezi, its partial Coahuila holotype, diagnostic ulna and osteoderm, Santonian age and the limits of its reconstruction.

• Abydosaurus: a brachiosaurid known for its skulls

  Learn what four Abydosaurus skull individuals reveal about a Cretaceous brachiosaurid, its teeth and the limits of reconstructing its complete body.

• Abditosaurus

  Abditosaurus explained through its 60-year excavation history, unusually complete skeleton, estimated size and proposed arrival from a southern titanosaur lineage.

• Abdarainurus: a sauropod known from its tail

  Meet Abdarainurus barsboldi through its unusual caudal vertebrae, 1970 discovery, Alag Teg setting, tentative titanosaur placement and incomplete fossil record.

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