Late Cretaceous

What happened during this time?

• Angiosperms spread to natural levees, back swamps, and coastal swamps between 84 and 100 million years ago

• Evidence of global disruption of plant communities at the K–T boundary (Vivi, Raine, and Hollis, 2001; Wilf and Johnson, 2004; Nichols and Johnson, 2008).

  • Extinctions are seen both in studies of fossil pollen, and fossil leaves.

  • In North America, the data suggest massive devastation and mass extinction of plants at the K–T boundary sections; approximately 57% of plant species became extinct. 

  • In high southern hemisphere latitudes, such as New Zealand and Antarctica the mass die-off of flora caused no significant turnover in species, but dramatic and short-term changes in the relative abundance of plant groups.

• The early diversifications of angiosperms and their insect pollinators were largely decoupled until the end of the Cretaceous (Asar et al., 2020)

• Oldest evidence of grasses (Poaceae) from 100–97 Ma (Poinar et al., 2015)

• Seagrasses (Alismatales), the only marine flowering plants, probably evolved during this time

• Fronds from western Canada are the earliest evidence of palms (Arecaceae) around 80 Ma (Greenwood et al. 2022)

• Orchids (Orchidaceae) probably evolved in the Late Cretaceous in Laurasia (Pérez-Escobar et al., 2024)