Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous epoch (Lower/Upper series), containing six named ages from Cenomanian to Maastrichtian.
Language and route: English descriptive ordinal attached to a Latin-derived system-name. English late (relative position) + scientific Cretaceous (ultimately Latin crēta, chalk); ordinal is not a unique personal coinage.
Literal gloss: English ordinal ‘late’ + Cretaceous
The name and its history
Not a single inventor; emerged as the regional Cretaceous classification was subdivided · nineteenth-century use; standard international epoch/series rank
- What does the word literally mean?
- English ordinal ‘late’ + Cretaceous
- What did the original author mean?
- Early stratigraphers grouped the expanding chalk, greensand and clay successions into a late division before modern fossil-stage boundaries were available.
- Why was the name needed?
- A chalk-based geographical system was no longer sufficient: fossil faunas and lithologies changed between districts, requiring relative ordering and later global boundaries.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Mapping, correlation of fossil molluscs, biostratigraphic comparison and modern global reference sections progressively displaced purely rock-character boundaries.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- Today the Late Cretaceous is the younger of two internationally recognised epochs/series and contains exactly six named stages; Lower/Upper denotes strata and Early/Late denotes time.
Further historical context
Early stratigraphers grouped the expanding chalk, greensand and clay successions into a late division before modern fossil-stage boundaries were available.
A chalk-based geographical system was no longer sufficient: fossil faunas and lithologies changed between districts, requiring relative ordering and later global boundaries.
Mapping, correlation of fossil molluscs, biostratigraphic comparison and modern global reference sections progressively displaced purely rock-character boundaries.
Today the Late Cretaceous is the younger of two internationally recognised epochs/series and contains exactly six named stages; Lower/Upper denotes strata and Early/Late denotes time.
Editorial qualification
Do not equate an ordinal series with a named rock formation or invent an individual who coined the adjective.
Related names
Cretaceous · Early Cretaceous · Paleogene · Cenomanian · Turonian · Coniacian · Santonian · Campanian · Maastrichtian
Sources
- International Commission on Stratigraphy, International Chronostratigraphic Chart v2026/06 — Controlling nomenclature, rank and sequence of internationally recognised ages; not a historical-coinage source
- British Geological Survey, Geological Conservation Review: Upper Cretaceous rocks of the British Isles — Scholarly history of d’Orbigny, Coquand, Senonian and Maastrichtian stages
- Gale et al. (2020), The Cretaceous Period, Geologic Time Scale 2020 — Modern scholarly synthesis of the original stage scheme and later redefinition; first-use dates sometimes uncertain
- ICS Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy, GSSPs and Working Groups — Distinguishes modern international boundary work from original local names