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# cretaceous

adjective (cretaceous; Cretaceous with a capital as a name)

«cretaceous» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. (science) The Cretaceous is the last period of the age of dinosaurs, from about 145 to 66 million years ago. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#m1)
2. (science) Cretaceous (small c) means made of chalk or like chalk. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#m2)

### In the lessons

In science lessons about dinosaurs and fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops lived in the Cretaceous; it ended when a huge asteroid hit the Earth and most dinosaurs died out. The period is named after chalk (Latin «creta»), because chalk rocks like the White Cliffs of Dover formed then. Phrases: «the Cretaceous period», «Late Cretaceous».

### Examples

- Tyrannosaurus rex lived in the Late Cretaceous period. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x1)
- The Cretaceous ended about 66 million years ago. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x2)
- An asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous wiped out most dinosaurs. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x3)
- The White Cliffs of Dover are made of Cretaceous chalk. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x4)
- The first flowering plants spread during the Cretaceous. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x5)
- We found a Cretaceous fossil shell on the beach. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/#x6)

### Note

Pronounced «krih-TAY-shus». Order of dinosaur periods: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. Myth: dinosaurs did not all live at the same time — T. rex lived closer in time to us than to Stegosaurus (a Jurassic dinosaur).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «cretaceous» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cretaceous/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«cretaceous» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/cretaceous.html) on Mova free.