View source for 60:4 The End of the Chalk Period

[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:The_eye_of_all_ur60.jpg|right|frame]]

60:4.1 The great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous] period was drawing to a close, and its termination marks the end of the great [[sea]] [[invasions]] of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continents continents]. Particularly is this true of North America, where there had been just twenty-four great inundations. And though there were subsequent minor submergences, none of these can be compared with the extensive and lengthy [[marine]] invasions of this and previous ages. These alternate periods of [[land]] and [[sea]] dominance have occurred in million-year [[cycles]]. There has been an agelong [[rhythm]] [[associated]] with this rise and fall of [[ocean]] floor and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continents continental] [[land]] levels. And these same rhythmical [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_crust crustal movements] will continue from this time on throughout the [[earth]]'s [[history]] but with diminishing [[frequency]] and extent.

60:4.2 This period also [[witnesses]] the end of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift continental drift] and the building of the modern [[mountains]] of [[Urantia]]. But the [[pressure]] of the continental masses and the thwarted [[momentum]] of their agelong drift are not the exclusive [[influences]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_building mountain building]. The chief and underlying factor in determining the location of a mountain range is the pre-existent lowland, or trough, which has become filled up with the comparatively lighter deposits of the land [[erosion]] and [[marine]] drifts of the preceding ages. These lighter areas of [[land]] are sometimes 15,000 to 20,000 feet thick; therefore, when the crust is subjected to [[pressure]] from any cause, these lighter areas are the first to crumple up, fold, and rise upward to afford compensatory [[adjustment]] for the contending and [[conflicting]] [[forces]] and pressures at [[work]] in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_crust earth's crust] or underneath the crust. Sometimes these upthrusts of [[land]] occur without folding. But in [[connection]] with the rise of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_mountains Rocky Mountains], great folding and tilting occurred, coupled with enormous overthrusts of the various layers, both underground and at the [[surface]].

60:4.3 The oldest mountains of the world are located in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mountain_ranges_of_Asia Asia], Greenland, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mountain_ranges_of_Europe northern Europe] among those of the older east-west systems. The mid-age mountains are in the circumpacific group and in the second European east-west system, which was born at about the same time. This gigantic uprising is almost ten thousand miles long, extending from Europe over into the West Indies land elevations. The youngest mountains are in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_mountains Rocky Mountain] system, where, for ages, land elevations had occurred only to be successively covered by the sea, though some of the higher lands remained as islands. Subsequent to the formation of the mid-age mountains, a real mountain highland was elevated which was destined, subsequently, to be carved into the present Rocky Mountains by the combined artistry of nature's elements.

60:4.4 The present [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains North American Rocky Mountain region] is not the [[original]] elevation of land; that elevation had been long since leveled by [[erosion]] and then re-elevated. The present front range of mountains is what is left of the remains of the original range which was re-elevated. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike's_Peak Pikes Peak] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long's_Peak Longs Peak] are outstanding examples of this [[mountain]] activity, extending over two or more generations of mountain lives. These two peaks held their heads above [[water]] during several of the preceding inundations.

60:4.5 [[Biologically]] as well as [[geologically]] this was an [[eventful]] and [[active]] age on [[land]] and under [[water]]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_urchins Sea urchins] increased while corals and crinoids decreased. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonites ammonites], of preponderant [[influence]] during a previous age, also rapidly declined. On land the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferns fern forests] were largely replaced by pine and other modern trees, including the gigantic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwoods redwoods]. By the end of this period, while the placental [[mammal]] has not yet evolved, the [[biologic]] [[stage]] is fully set for the [[appearance]], in a subsequent age, of the early [[ancestors]] of the [[future]] [[mammal]]ian types.

60:4.6 And thus ends a long era of world [[evolution]], extending from the early [[appearance]] of [[land]] life down to the more recent times of the [[immediate]] [[ancestors]] of the [[human]] [[species]] and its collateral branches. This, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Cretaceous] age, covers fifty million years and brings to a close the premammalian era of [[land]] life, which extends over a period of one hundred million years and is known as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesozoic Mesozoic].

60:4.7 [Presented by a [[Life Carrier]] of [[Nebadon]] assigned to [[Satania]] and now functioning on [[Urantia]].

<center>[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_60 Go to Paper 60]</center>
<center>[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>

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