Cenomanian Stage

The Cenomanian (101–94 Ma) is the first epoch of the Late Cretaceous, occurring after the Albian (Early Cretaceous), and before the Turonian

Geologic Age

  • 100.5–93.9 Ma

Eon / Era / Period / Epoch

What happened during this time?

  • Angiosperms dramatically increase in the species around 100 Ma

  • Kelp forests may appear at this time (Looy 2014), although direct evidence indicates a Miocene origin

  • Earliest evidence of parental care in insects (Wang et al. 2015)

  • At the end of the Cenomanian an anoxic event took place, called the "Bonarelli Event", that is associated with a minor extinction event for marine species.

  • Oldest evidence of grasses from 100–97 Ma

    • Titanosaurs coprolites indicate at least 5 distinct grass taxa from phytoliths

  • Oldest evidence of flower pollination from a flower beetle with pollen on its legs discovered preserved in amber (Bao et al. 2019)

    • The early diversifications of angiosperms and their insect pollinators were largely decoupled until the end of the Cretaceous (Asar et al. 2020)

  • Evidence from oyster shells found in Western North America indicates temperatures were as warm as today's tropics (Jones et al. 2022)

Additional Resources