the genera Alveolina, Cristellaria, Rotalia, Textularia, Orbitolina, Globigerina. Radiolarians were doubtless abundant, but their remains are rare. Sponges with calcareous (Peronidilla, Barroisia) and siliceous skeletons (Siphonia, Coeloptychium, Ventriculites) were very numerous in certain of the Cretaceous waters. Corals were comparatively rare, Trochosmilia, Parasmilia, Holocystis being typical genera; reefs were formed in the Maestricht beds of Denmark and Faxoe, in the Neocomian and Turonian of France, in the Turonian of the Alps and Pyrenees, and also in the Gosau beds and in the Utatur group of India. Sea-urchins were a conspicuous feature, and many nearly allied forms are still living; Cidaris, Micraster, Discoidea are examples. Crinoids were represented by Marsupites, Uintacrinus and Bourgueticrinus; starfish (Calliderma and Pentagonaster) were not uncommon. Polyzoa were abundant; brachiopods were fairly common, though subordinate to the pelecypods; they were mostly rhynchonellids and terebratulids, which lived side by side with the ancient forms, like Crania and Discina. The bivalve mollusca were very important during this period, Inoceramus, Ostrea, Spondylus, Gervillia, Exogyra, Pecten, Trigonia being particularly abundant in the northern seas, while in the southern waters the remarkable Hippurites, Radiolites, Caprotina, Caprina, Monopleura and Requienia prevailed. Gasteropods were well represented and included many modern genera. Cephalopods were important as a group, but the ammonites, so vigorous in the foregoing period, were declining and were assuming curious degenerate forms, often with a tendency to uncoil the shell; Baculites, Hoplites, Turrilites, Ptychoceras, Hamites are some of the typical genera, while Belemnites and Belemnitella were abundant in the northern seas.
The vertebrate fauna of the Cretaceous period differed in many features from that of the present day; mammals appear to have been only poorly represented by puny forms, related to Triassic and Jurassic types; they were mainly marsupials (Batodon, Cimolestes) with a few monotreme-like forms; carnivores, rodents and ungulates were still unknown. As in Jurassic times, reptiles were the dominant forms, and not a few genera lived on from the former period into the Cretaceous; but, on the whole, the reptilian assemblage was no longer so varied, and most of the distinctive mesozoic types had passed away before the close of this period. Dinosaurs were represented by herbivorous and carnivorous genera as in the Jurassic period, but the latter were less abundant than before. The Iguanodon of the Sussex-Weald and Bernissart in Belgium is perhaps the best-known genus; but there were many others, their remains being particularly abundant and well-preserved in the Cretaceous deposits of N. America. Titanosaurus, Acanthopholis, Megalosaurus and Hypsilophodon may be mentioned, some of these being of great size, while Diclonius was a curious duck-billed creature; but most remarkable in appearance must have been the horned Dinosaurs, Ceratops and Triceratops, gross, unwieldy creatures, 25 to 30 ft. long, whose huge heads were grotesquely armed with horns and bony frills.
Coincident, perhaps, with the widespread extension of the sea was the development of aquatic habits and structures suitable thereto amongst all the reptilian groups including also the birds. The foremost place was undoubtedly taken by the pythonomorphs or sea-serpents, including Mosasaurus and many others; these were enormously elongated creatures, reaching up to 75 ft., with swimming flappers and powerful swimming tails, and they lived a predatory life in the open sea. Ichthyosaurians soon disappeared from Cretaceous waters; but the plesiosaurians (Cimoliosaurus and others) reached their maximum development in this period. The remarkable flying lizards, pterosaurs, likewise attained their great development and then passed away; they ranged in size from that of a pigeon to creatures with a wing-spread of 25 ft.; notable genera are Pteranodon, Ornithocheirus, Nyctiosaurus. Ordinary lizard-like forms were represented by Coniosaurus, Dolichosaurus, &c.; and true crocodiles, Goniopholis, Suchosaurus, appeared in this period, and continued to approximate to modern genera. The earliest known river turtles are found in the Belly River deposits of Canada; marine turtles also made their first appearance and were widely represented, some of them, Archelon and Protostega, being of great size. True snakes appeared later in the period.
The birds, as far as existing evidence goes, were aquatic; some, like Ichthyornis, were built for powerful flight; others, like Hesperornis, were flightless. Enaliornis is a form well known from the Cambridge Greensand. They were toothed birds having structural affinities with the Dinosaurs and Pterodactyles.
Fish remains of this period show that a marked change was taking place; teleosteans (with bony internal skeleton) were taking a more prominent place, and although ganoids were still represented (Macropoma, Lepidotus, Amiopris, &c.) they had quite ceased to be the dominant types before the close of Cretaceous times. Sharks and rays were of the modern types, though distinct in species. Amongst the early forms of Cretaceous teleosteans may be mentioned Elopopsis, Ichthyodectes, Diplomystus (herring), Haplopteryx and Urenchelys (eel).
For further information see the articles Chalk; Greensand; Wealden. Sir A. Geikie’s Text-book of Geology, vol. ii. (4th ed., 1903), contains in addition to a full general account of the system very full references to the literature.
CRETE (Gr. Κρήτη; Turk. Kirid, Ital. Candia), after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus the largest island in the Mediterranean, situated between 34° 50′ and 35° 40′ N. lat. and between 23° 30′ and 26° 20′ E. long. Its north-eastern extremity, Cape Sidero, is distant about 110 m. from Cape Krio in Asia Minor, the interval being partly filled by the islands of Carpathos and Rhodes; its north-western, Cape Grabusa, is within 60 m. of Cape Malea in the Morea. Crete thus forms the natural limit between the Mediterranean and the Archipelago.
The island is of elongated form; its length from E. to W. is 160 m., its breadth from N. to S. varies from 35 to 712 m., its area is 3330 sq. m. The northern coast-line is much indented. On the W. two narrow mountainous promontories, the western terminating in Cape Grabusa or Busa (ancient Corycus), the eastern in Cape Spada, shut in the Bay of Kisamos; beyond the Bay of Canea, to the E., the rocky peninsula of Akrotiri shelters the magnificent natural harbour of Suda (812 sq. m.), the only completely protected anchorage for large vessels which the island affords. Farther E. are the bays of Candia and Malea, the deep Mirabello Bay and the Bay of Sitia. The south coast is less broken, and possesses no natural harbours, the mountains in many parts rising almost like a wall from the sea; in the centre is Cape Lithinos, the southernmost point of the island, partly sheltering the Bay of Messará on the W. Immediately to the E. of Cape Lithinos is the small bay of Kali Liménes or Fair Havens, where the ship conveying St Paul took refuge (Acts xxvii. 8). Of the islands in the neighbourhood of the Cretan coast the largest is Gavdo (ancient Clauda, Acts
