View source for 60:3 The Cretaceous Stage-The Flowering-Plant Period-The Age of Birds

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60:3.1 The great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous] period derives its name from the predominance of the prolific chalk-making [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foraminifera foraminifers] in the seas. This period brings [[Urantia]] to near the end of the long [[Reptiles|reptilian] [[dominance]] and [[witnesses]] the [[appearance]] of flowering [[plants]] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds bird] life on land. These are also the times of the termination of the westward and southward [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift drift of the continents], accompanied by tremendous [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_crust crustal] deformations and concomitant widespread [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava lava] flows and great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanoes volcanic] activities.

60:3.2 Near the close of the [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_60_-_Urantia_During_Early_Land-Life_Era#60:2._THE_LATER_REPTILIAN_AGE preceding geologic period] much of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continents continental] [[land]] was up above [[water]], although as yet there were no mountain peaks. But as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift continental land drift] continued, it met with the first great obstruction on the deep floor of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_ocean Pacific]. This [[contention]] of geologic [[forces]] gave impetus to the formation of the whole vast north and south mountain range extending from Alaska down through Mexico to Cape Horn.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire]

60:3.3 This period thus becomes the modern [[mountain]]-building [[stage]] of [[geologic]] [[history]].[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orogeny] Prior to this time there were few mountain [[Summit|peaks]], merely elevated land ridges of great width. Now the Pacific coast range was beginning to elevate, but it was located seven hundred miles west of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Cordillera_(North_America)#Geologic_origin present shore line]. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierras Sierras] were beginning to form, their gold-bearing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz quartz] strata being the product of lava flows of this [[epoch]]. In the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians eastern part of North America], Atlantic sea pressure was also working to cause [[land]] elevation.

60:3.4 100,000,000 years ago the North American continent and a part of Europe were well above water. The warping of the American continents continued, resulting in the [[metamorphosing]] of the South American [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes_Mountains Andes] and in the gradual elevation of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_plains#Geology western plains of North America]. Most of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Mexico Mexico] sank beneath the sea, and the southern Atlantic encroached on the eastern coast of South America, eventually reaching the present shore line. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans were then about as they are today.

60:3.5 95,000,000 years ago the American and European land masses again began to sink. The southern seas commenced the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_cretaceous_general.jpg invasion of North America] and gradually extended northward to connect with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Ocean Arctic Ocean], constituting the second greatest submergence of the continent. When this sea finally withdrew, it left the continent about as it now is. Before this great submergence began, the eastern [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians Appalachian highlands] had been almost completely worn down to the [[water]]'s level. The many colored layers of pure clay now used for the manufacture of earthenware were laid down over the Atlantic coast regions during this age, their average thickness being about 2,000 feet.

60:3.6 Great volcanic actions occurred south of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Alps Alps] and along the line of the present [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Coast_Ranges California coast-range mountains]. The greatest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_crust crustal deformations] in millions upon millions of years took place in Mexico. Great changes also occurred in Europe, Russia, Japan, and southern South America. The [[climate]] became increasingly diversified.

60:3.7 90,000,000 years ago the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiosperms angiosperms] emerged from these early [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous] seas and soon overran the continents. These land [[plants]] suddenly appeared along with fig trees, magnolias, and tulip trees. Soon after this time fig trees, breadfruit trees, and palms overspread Europe and the western plains of North America. No new land [[animals]] appeared.

60:3.8 85,000,000 years ago [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_strait Bering Strait] closed, shutting off the cooling waters of the northern seas. Theretofore the [[marine]] life of the Atlantic-Gulf waters and that of the Pacific Ocean had differed greatly, owing to the [[temperature]] variations of these two bodies of [[water]], which now became [[uniform]].

60:3.9 The deposits of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk chalk] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navesink_Formation greensand marl][https://www.jstor.org/stable/30055673?cookieSet=1] give name to this period. The sedimentations of these times are variegated, consisting of chalk, shale, sandstone, and small amounts of limestone, together with inferior coal or lignite, and in many regions they contain oil. These layers vary in thickness from 200 feet in some places to 10,000 feet in western North America and numerous European localities. Along the eastern borders of the Rocky Mountains these deposits may be observed in the uptilted foothills.

60:3.10 All over the world these strata are permeated with chalk, and these layers of porous semirock pick up water at upturned outcrops and convey it downward to furnish the [[water]] supply of much of the [[earth]]'s present arid regions.

60:3.11 80,000,000 years ago great disturbances occurred in the [[earth]]'s crust. The western advance of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift continental drift] was coming to a standstill, and the enormous [[energy]] of the sluggish [[momentum]] of the hinter continental mass upcrumpled the Pacific shore line of both North and South America and initiated [[profound]] repercussional [[changes]] along the Pacific shores of Asia. This circumpacific land elevation, which culminated in present-day mountain ranges[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire], is more than twenty-five thousand miles long. And the upheavals attendant upon its birth were the greatest surface distortions to take place since life appeared on [[Urantia]]. The lava flows, both above and below ground, were extensive and widespread.

60:3.12 75,000,000 years ago marks the end of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift continental drift]. From Alaska to Cape Horn the long Pacific coast mountain ranges were completed, but there were as yet few peaks.

60:3.13 The backthrust of the halted continental drift continued the elevation of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_plains western plains] of North America, while in the east the worn-down [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains Appalachian Mountains] of the Atlantic coast region were projected straight up, with little or no tilting.

60:3.14 70,000,000 years ago the crustal distortions connected with the maximum elevation of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains Rocky Mountain] region took place. A large segment of rock was overthrust fifteen miles at the surface in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia British Columbia]; here the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion Cambrian rocks are obliquely thrust out over the Cretaceous layers]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgess_shale On the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near the Canadian border], there was another spectacular overthrust; here may be found the prelife stone layers shoved out over the then recent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous] deposits.

60:3.15 This was an age of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanoes volcanic] activity all over the world, giving rise to numerous small isolated volcanic cones. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_volcanoes Submarine volcanoes] broke out in the submerged [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas Himalayan] region. Much of the rest of Asia, including Siberia, was also still under water.

60:3.16 65,000,000 years ago there occurred one of the greatest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava lava] flows of all time. The deposition layers of these and preceding lava flows are to be found all over the Americas, North and South Africa, Australia, and parts of Europe.

60:3.17 The [[land]] [[animals]] were little changed, but because of greater [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continents continental] [[emergence]], especially in North America, they rapidly multiplied. North America was the great field of the land-animal evolution of these times, most of Europe being under water.

60:3.18 The [[climate]] was still warm and [[uniform]]. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic arctic] regions were enjoying [[weather]] much like that of the present climate in central and southern North America.

60:3.19 Great [[plant]]-life [[evolution]] was taking place. Among the land [[plants]] the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiosperms angiosperms] predominated, and many present-day trees first appeared, including beech, birch, oak, walnut, sycamore, maple, and modern palms. Fruits, grasses, and cereals were abundant, and these [[seed]]-bearing grasses and trees were to the [[plant]] world what the [[ancestors]] of man were to the [[animal]] world—they were second in [[evolutionary]] importance only to the [[appearance]] of [[man]] himself. Suddenly and without previous gradation, the great family of flowering [[plants]] mutated. And this new flora soon overspread the entire world.

60:3.20 60,000,000 years ago, though the [[land]] [[reptiles]] were on the decline, the [[dinosaurs]] continued as [[Hegemony|monarchs]] of the land, the lead now being taken by the more agile and [[active]] types of the smaller leaping kangaroo varieties of the [[carnivorous]] [[dinosaurs]]. But some time previously there had appeared new types of the herbivorous dinosaurs, whose rapid increase was due to the [[appearance]] of the grass family of [[land]] [[plants]]. One of these new grass-eating dinosaurs was a true quadruped having two horns and a capelike shoulder flange. The land type of turtle, twenty feet across, appeared as did also the modern crocodile and true snakes of the modern type. Great [[changes]] were also occurring among the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish fishes] and other forms of [[marine]] life.

60:3.21 The wading and swimming prebirds of earlier ages had not been a success in the [[air]], nor had the flying dinosaurs. They were a short-lived species, soon becoming [[extinct]]. They, too, were subject to the dinosaur doom, destruction, because of having too little [[brain]] substance in comparison with [[body]] size. This second attempt to produce [[animals]] that could [[navigate]] the [[atmosphere]] failed, as did the [[abortive]] attempt to produce [[mammals]] during this and a preceding age.

60:3.22 55,000,000 years ago the [[evolutionary]] march was marked by the sudden [[appearance]] of the first of the true birds, a small pigeonlike creature which was the [[ancestor]] of all bird life. This was the third type of flying [[creature]] to appear on [[earth]], and it sprang directly from the [[reptilian]] group, not from the contemporary flying dinosaurs nor from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx earlier types of toothed land birds]. And so this becomes known as the age of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds birds] as well as the declining age of [[reptiles]].

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[[Category:Paper 60 - Urantia During Early Land-Life Era]]
[[Category: Urantia]]
[[Category: Evolution]]
[[Category: Earth Science/TeaM]]