Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution

The Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (abbreviated KTR), also known as the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (ATR) by authors who consider it to have lasted into the

Mya to 80 Mya.^[2] Alternatively, according to Michael Benton, the ATR is proposed to have lasted from 100 Ma, when the first highly diverse angiosperm leaf floras are known, to 50 Ma, during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, by which point most crown lineages of angiosperms had evolved.^[1]

The KTR was enabled by the dispersed positions of the continents and the formation of new oceans during the Cretaceous in the aftermath of Pangaea's breakup in the preceding Jurassic period, which enhanced the hydrological cycle and promoted the expansion of temperate climatic zones, fuelling radiations of angiosperms.^[3]

Before Lloyd et al.'s 2008 paper described the KTR, it had been widely accepted in

Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR) by enhancing weathering and erosion, accelerating the flow of limiting nutrients into the world’s oceans.^[7]

A comprehensive molecular study of evolution of mammals at the taxonomic level of family also showed important diversification during the KTR.

fossil record.^[10]

For nearly the entirety of

Earth's history, including most of the Phanerozoic eon, marine species diversity exceeded terrestrial species diversity, a pattern which was reversed during the Middle Cretaceous as a result of the KTR in what has been termed a biological "great divergence", named after the historical Great Divergence.^[11]

References

period is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v
t
e

[Benton2021-1] 
S2CID 240000207
. Retrieved 24 November 2022.

[KTR2008-2] 
PMID 18647715
.

[3] PMID 35927259
.

[4] PMID 24089340
. Retrieved 25 March 2024.

[5] PMID 33391817
.

[6] ISSN 0027-8424
. Retrieved 16 March 2024.

[7] ISSN 1342-8144
. Retrieved 29 September 2023.

[8] S2CID 38120449
.

[9] PMID 20805492
.

[10] PMID 29399804
.

[11] PMID 21558232
. Retrieved 1 October 2022.

[2]

[1]

[3]

[7]

[10]

[11]

See also

References