| 释义 |
Cretacean, a. and n. Geol.
Brit. |krɪˈteɪʃn|, U.S. |krəˈteɪʃ(ə)n|
[‹ classical Latin crētāceus (see cretaceous adj. and n.) + -an suffix. Compare earlier cretaceous adj. and n.]
A. adj. = cretaceous adj. 2.
1846Littell's Living Age 7 Nov. 354/2 The lapse of ages, implied by the distinctness of the fossils of the eocene, cretacean, carboniferous, and other strata. 1870Appleton's Jrnl. 19 Nov. 619/3 The vegetation of the cretacean period approaches that of our days. 1936Geografiska Ann. 18 120 They were intruded mainly in Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretacean times. 1993Sunday Times (Nexis) 12 Dec. From beneath the looming skeleton of a late Cretacean titanosaurus, they gingerly removed a priceless clutch of 70m-year-old dinosaur eggs.
B. n.
1. With the: = cretaceous n. Now rare.
1867Ann. Rep. Trustees Mus. Compar. Zool. in Amer. Naturalist (1868) 2 554 In California and Vancouver Island, the red woods or Sequoia, abound in the Cretacean and Tertiary, as now. 1953E. Palmer tr. S. Ekman Zoogeogr. Sea iv. 70 We recall the number of cidaroids in the East Atlantic: 95 in the upper Cretacean, 73 in the Eocene, 26 in the Miocene. 2001A. H. Delsemme Our Cosmic Origins vi. 188 The Foraminifera are marine shellfish of the Cretacean; they were extinct in the Tertiary.
2. An animal of the Cretaceous period. rare.
1868Amer. Naturalist 2 166 Professor Cope exhibited teeth of a new Cretacean, Squalodon mento Cope. 1997Times of Oman (Nexis) 11 June During the same period all the cretaceans had a major extinction phase, and about 25 to 30 per cent of life on earth vanished. |