Glossary Menu

Dinosaur Content

Geologic Timeline

Prehistoric Reptiles

Fun Links

Miscellaneous Links

Glossary CRA - CRY

Homepage > Glossary C

CAE - CAR - CEN - CHA - CHI - CLI - COM - CRA - CTE

CRATEROSAURUS
(pronounced KRAY-ter-oh-SAWR-us) Craterosaurus (meaning: "crater or cup lizard") was a stegosaurid dinosaur. This plated, quadrupedal plant-eater was about 13 ft (4 m) long and weighed roughly 560 kg. It lived during the early Cretaceous Period, 138-135 million years ago. A single, incomplete vertebra was found in England. Unlike other stegosaurid vertebrae, it has pitting on its top surface (this bone was originally thought to be the braincase, hence its name). The type species is C. pottonensis. Craterosaurus was named by paleontologist Seeley in 1874.

Crayfish
The common name for a number of lobster-like, freshwater crustaceans.

CREODONT
Creodonts were an order of meat-eating mammals that were very common roughly 60 to 30 million years ago; they were the dominant carnivorous mammals during the Tertiary period. They lived in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America, going extinct 7 million years ago, during the late Miocene. Creodonts were quadrupeds with clawed feet, a small brain, large jaws and many sharp teeth. Some creodonts included the mongoose-like Prototomus, the bear-like Sarkastodon (Family Oxyaenidae), the wolf-like Hyaenodon (Family Hyaenodontidae), Pterodon, Andrewsarchus (Family Mesonychidae) and Megistotherium. Creodonts were first described by paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1877.

CREST
A crest is a growth on an animal's head. Many dinosaurs, like Corythosaurus and Lambeosaurus, had bony crests on their heads.

Cretaceous Period
The Early Cretaceous period lasted from 144 million years ago to 97 million years ago. The Late Cretaceous period lasted from 97 to 65 million years ago.

CRETODUS
Cretodus is an extinct genus of Mackerel sharks that lived during the late Cretaceous period. This shark is known only from fossilized teeth and vertebrae that have been found in Africa, Europe, and North America. The length of the teeth (from the tip of the crown to the tip of the root) is about 2 inches (5 cm). Cretodus was named by Sokolov in 1965. Classification: Order Lamniformes, Family Cretoxyrhinidae.

Crocodile
The only surviving archosaurs, crocodiles are cold-blooded, egg-laying reptiles. They have changed very little in their history, nearly all being aquatic or semi-aquatic hunters and scavengers.

CRO-MAGNON
Cro-Magnon man was an early group of Homo sapiens (the species to which we belong) that lived about 40,000 years ago in what is now Europe. Skeletal remains of the Cro-Magnon were first found in caverns in Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France (in 1868).

CROSSOPTERYGII
Crossopterygii (lobe-finned fish) are bony fish whose fins are supported on fleshy lobes. Lobe-finned fish appeared during the Silurian period (roughly 420 million years ago). The Coelacanth and the extinct Rhipidistians are examples of lobe-finned fish.

Crustacean
A class of arthropods that includes crabs, lobsters, wood-lice, barnacles and waterfleas. They evolved in the Cambrian period, or maybe even earlier, and became diverse and numerous in the Mesozoic era.

Cryolophosaurus
Cryolophosaurus, meaning . frozen crested reptile. , was a bipedal, meat-eating dinosaur, about 6 metres long. It had a horn-like, upward pointing crest above its eyes. It lived in what is now Antarctica during the early Jurassic period, roughly 190 million years ago. It is the only theropod known from the Antarctic, and the first Antarctic dinosaur ever described.

Cryptoclidus
This large, four flippered plesiosaur was a carnivore living in the Late Jurassic period. It glided through the open seas in search of fish or squid. It is thought that Cryptoclidus swallowed stones, called gastroliths, to weigh itself down while hunting for prey on the sea bed. It was up to 8 metres long and could weigh up to 8 tonnes.

CRYPTOZOIC
The Cryptozoic (also called the Proterozoic) was an eon in geological time that lasted from 2.5 billion years ago to 540 million years ago. During the Proterozoic/Cryptozoic Eon, the first multicellular life evolved, including colonial algae, solf-bodied invertebrates, and sponges.

Crinoid
Crinoids are echinoderms, a group of animals that also includes the sea-urchins and starfish. Most fossil crinoids have a head bearing a crown of arms (usually five) and lived attached to the sea floor by a stalk. Their superficial flower-like appearance led to their popular name . sea lilies. . In the Palaeozoic era crinoids were abundant but they started to decline during the Mesozoic era. Today there are only a few, mostly free-swimming, forms.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Cryptozoology is the study of evidence concerning creatures whose existence is uncertain, like the Loch Ness monster or the Abominable Snowman.

CRYSTALS
Crystals are solids whose atoms form a very regular pattern.

CAE - CAR - CEN - CHA - CHI - CLI - COM - CRA - CTE