Cretaceous Cretaceous The Cretaceous (, ) is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period million years ago (mya) to the beginning of the Paleogene Period mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, and the longest period of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation "Kreide" (chalk, "creta" in Latin). The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles,
The Age of Reptiles the mural's beginning to the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Each period's length on the mural is proportional to the period's length in geologic time. Each period of time is divided by large trees in the foreground. Animal species are in bold. Devonian Carboniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous "The Age of Reptiles" won Zallinger several awards. Zallinger was awarded with a Pulitzer Fellowship in Art in 1949, and the painting was featured as a postage stamp in 1970. Despite its somewhat outdated view of dinosaurs, "The Age of Reptiles" is still notable for its historical and