Antarctica, far from the frozen pole, was a temperate, forested landscape, hosting diverse flora and fauna that thrived in a climate more akin to modern-day Washington or southern Australia. The Tethys Ocean, for instance, acted as a massive thermal reservoir, moderating temperatures between the northern continents.
Ancient Plants and Insects: A Coevolutionary Dance Through the Cretaceous
The Cretaceous World: A Greenhouse Planet Geologically, 100 million years ago places us squarely in the middle of the Cretaceous Period, an era that began roughly 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago. This botanical revolution provided new niches and food sources, fueling further evolutionary innovation.
Global temperatures were significantly warmer than today, with average surface temperatures perhaps 6 to 8 degrees Celsius higher. The most striking feature of this ancient world was its climate.
Ancient Plants and Insects: A Coevolutionary Dance in the Cretaceous World
The Shifting Continents: A Map in Flux The physical arrangement of the world’s continents was dramatically different. However, these rulers shared the land with a stunning array of other creatures: armored ankylosaurs, horned ceratopsians, and the first birds, which were just beginning to take flight, flapping alongside their pterosaur cousins in the skies.
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