Major subdivisions of the Cretaceous System
The rocks that were either deposited or formed during the Cretaceous Period make up the Cretaceous System. The Cretaceous System is divided into two rock series, Lower and Upper, which correspond to units of time known as the Early Cretaceous Epoch (145 to 100.5 million years ago) and the Late Cretaceous Epoch (100.5 to 66 million years ago); see the geologic time scale.
Both the Early and the Late Cretaceous epochs in turn are divided into six ages of variable length. Their definition was initiated during the mid- to late 1800s, when geologists working in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland recognized and named the 12 corresponding rock stages. Each of the stages is defined by rocks, sediments, and fossils found at a particular locality called the type area. For example, A.D. d’Orbigny defined and described the Cenomanian Stage in 1847, based on some 847 fossil species characteristic of the strata, and confirmed Le Mans, France, as the type area. The Cenomanian Age is thus defined on the basis of the rocks, sediments, and fossils in the type area for the Cenomanian Stage. For the Lower Cretaceous Series the stages are the Berriasian, Valanginian, Hauterivian, Barremian, Aptian, and Albian. For the Upper Cretaceous they are the Cenomanian, Turonian, Coniacian, Santonian, Campanian, and Maastrichtian. The longest is the Aptian, lasting about 12 million years; the Santonian is the shortest at just under 3 million years.
A type area is not always the best place to define a stage. The type area for the Coniacian Stage, for example, is in Cognac, France, but there the boundary with the underlying Turonian is marked by a discontinuity, and one stratigraphically important fossil group, the inoceramid bivalves, is poorly represented. These conditions make correlation of the base of the Coniacian Stage difficult at sites away from the type area.
Since the inception of the 12 Cretaceous stages, geologists have worked to solve such problems caused by incompleteness of the stratigraphic record and fossils of poor utility in type areas. It is now customary to define the base of one stage and to consider that stage as continuing until the beginning of the next younger stage. Researchers meet periodically to discuss problems of stage boundaries and to suggest solutions. In 1983 a group of geologists from around the world met in Copenhagen, Denmark, and suggested that alternative type areas be designated for all the stage boundaries discussed. Further, they suggested that the long Albian Stage be divided into three substages: the Lower, Middle, and Upper Albian. It is agreed that stages are “packages of zones” and that the most sensible way to define a stage is by the base of the earliest biozone at a boundary type area. Traditionally, ammonites have been used to define biozones within the type area of Cretaceous stages, but other animals, such as inoceramid bivalves, belemnites, and even calpionellids, are sometimes used (see the section Correlation below). The number of usable biozones for the Cretaceous varies from area to area. For example, about 25 ammonite zones are employed in the type areas of western Europe for the whole of the Cretaceous, but at least 55 are recognized in the Upper Cretaceous alone for the western interior of North America.
