LATE CRETACEOUS CLIMATES AND FORAMINIFERID DISTRIBUTIONS

Abstract

The late Cretaceous records a warm, greenhouse, period of Earth history with a distinct 'hot greenhouse' interval in the latest Cenomanian and earliest Turonian. This was coupled with the highest sea levels of the Mesozoic and very low N-S temperature gradients. Polar regions are thought to have been temperate, rather than cold, although there is a body of opinion that regards some of the late Cretaceous sea-level changes as being glacio-eustatic. Towards the end of the Cretaceous, there was a brief period of warming and poleward migration of planktic foraminifera that was followed by a near end-Cretaceous cooling event.