Question 1

How do you say Turonian?

Accepted Answer

Turonian is pronounced toor-OH-nee-an. The stress falls on the second syllable, so you say it with a strong OH in the middle. Break it down like this: toor, then OH, then nee, then an. Say it all together and you get toor-OH-nee-an. Once you have it, it rolls off the tongue pretty naturally.

Question 2

What does Turonian mean?

Accepted Answer

Turonian is named after an ancient region of France called Touraine, which surrounds the modern city of Tours in the Loire Valley. The name comes from the Turoni, a Gaulish tribe that lived in that region during Roman times. French geologist Alcide d'Orbigny named the geological stage after this area in 1842 because he studied the characteristic rocks of this time period there. So when you say Turonian, you are essentially saying the age of Touraine.

Question 3

When was the Turonian period?

Accepted Answer

The Turonian Age lasted from approximately 93.9 million years ago to about 89.8 million years ago. That makes it roughly 4.1 million years long, which is actually one of the shorter stages in the Late Cretaceous Epoch. It came after the Cenomanian Stage and was followed by the Coniacian Stage. In the grand scheme of Earth history, it sits right in the middle of the Late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were still thriving and sea levels were extraordinarily high.

Question 4

What dinosaurs lived during the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

Several fascinating dinosaurs lived during the Turonian Age. In North America, Siats meekerorum was a large theropod predator that lived during this time. Early relatives of later famous dinosaurs were also present, including ancestors of the ceratopsian family that would eventually produce Triceratops. Tyrannosaur relatives existed during the Turonian, though they had not yet evolved into the enormous apex predators they would later become in the final stages of the Cretaceous Period.

Question 5

What was the climate like during the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

The Turonian was one of the warmest periods in all of Earth's history. There were no polar ice caps at all, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was several times higher than it is today. Even the deep ocean was significantly warmer than modern tropical surface waters. Warm, shallow seas covered enormous areas of land that are now dry continents, including a vast seaway that cut North America in half from north to south.

Question 6

What sea covered North America during the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

During the Turonian, a body of water called the Western Interior Seaway flooded the entire central region of North America. This enormous shallow sea stretched from the Arctic Ocean all the way south to what is now the Gulf of Mexico, effectively splitting the continent into two separate landmasses. It was warm and shallow compared to modern oceans, and it was absolutely packed with life including giant fish, early mosasaurs, sharks, ammonites, and plesiosaurs.

Question 7

What ended the Turonian age?

Accepted Answer

The Turonian ended around 89.8 million years ago and transitioned into the next stage, called the Coniacian. Unlike the dramatic asteroid impact that ended the entire Cretaceous Period millions of years later, the end of the Turonian was a gradual geological shift. Scientists identify the boundary in the rock record by changes in the types of microscopic fossils preserved in marine sediments, particularly tiny organisms called foraminifera. Slow changes in sea level and ocean chemistry marked the transition from one age to the next.

Question 8

What major event happened at the start of the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

Right at the boundary between the Cenomanian and Turonian ages, about 93.9 million years ago, one of the most dramatic ocean events in Earth's history occurred. It is called Oceanic Anoxic Event 2, or the Cenomanian-Turonian Boundary Event. During this event, oxygen levels in the world's oceans crashed catastrophically, creating massive dead zones and causing a significant extinction of marine species. This event is visible in rock layers around the world as a distinctive dark layer of carbon-rich rock.

Question 9

Where is the official rock layer that marks the start of the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

The official starting point of the Turonian Age is defined by a specific rock layer at a location called Rock Canyon Anticline, near the city of Pueblo in Colorado, USA. This spot is called a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, or GSSP, and it serves as the internationally agreed reference for the base of the Turonian anywhere on Earth. Scientists from the International Commission on Stratigraphy chose this Colorado location because the rocks there preserve an exceptionally clear record of the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event.

Question 10

Who named the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

The Turonian was named by a French scientist named Alcide d'Orbigny in 1842. D'Orbigny was a groundbreaking geologist and paleontologist who is considered one of the founders of biostratigraphy, which is the science of using fossils to date rock layers. He named several of the Cretaceous stages that scientists still use today. He chose the name Turonian based on rock sequences he studied near Tours in the Loire Valley of France, naming it after the ancient Gaulish tribe called the Turoni who once lived in that region.

Question 11

Were there sharks during the Turonian?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and they were absolutely massive. One of the most impressive Turonian predators was a shark called Cretoxyrhina mantelli, nicknamed the Ginsu Shark because of its incredibly sharp, blade-like teeth. It could grow up to about 6 meters long, making it one of the largest sharks of its era. Fossil evidence shows that Cretoxyrhina was powerful enough to bite through the bones of mosasaurs, which were themselves giant marine reptiles. It was a true apex predator of the Turonian seas.

Question 12

How long did the Turonian last?

Accepted Answer

The Turonian lasted approximately 4.1 million years, spanning from about 93.9 million years ago to roughly 89.8 million years ago. In geological terms that is actually a relatively short stage compared to some other periods in Earth's history. For comparison, humans and our immediate ancestors have existed for only about 6 million years, so the Turonian was shorter than the entire span of human evolution. Despite its brevity, it was a time of extraordinary biodiversity on land and especially in the seas.

Question 13

Is the Turonian part of the Cretaceous?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the Turonian is one of the stages within the Late Cretaceous Epoch, which is itself part of the larger Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous Period ran from about 145 million years ago all the way to 66 million years ago, when the famous asteroid impact wiped out the non-bird dinosaurs. The Turonian sits near the middle of the Late Cretaceous, sandwiched between the Cenomanian Stage before it and the Coniacian Stage after it. All of these stages together make up the Age of Dinosaurs.

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