Editing Cretaceous (section)

=== Rhynchocephalians ===
[[File:Priosphenodon_skeleton.png|thumb|Skeleton of ''[[Priosphenodon|Priosphenodon avelasi]]'' a large herbivorous rhynchocephalian known from the mid-Cretaceous of South America]][[Rhynchocephalia]]ns (which today only includes the [[tuatara]]) disappeared from North America and Europe after the [[Early Cretaceous]],<ref name="Cleary-2018">{{cite journal|vauthors=Cleary TJ, Benson RB, Evans SE, Barrett PM|date=March 2018|title=Lepidosaurian diversity in the Mesozoic-Palaeogene: the potential roles of sampling biases and environmental drivers|journal=Royal Society Open Science|volume=5|issue=3|pages=171830|bibcode=2018RSOS....571830C|doi=10.1098/rsos.171830|pmc=5882712|pmid=29657788}}</ref> and were absent from North Africa<ref name="Apesteguía-2016">{{cite journal|vauthors=Apesteguía S, Daza JD, Simões TR, Rage JC|date=September 2016|title=The first iguanian lizard from the Mesozoic of Africa|journal=Royal Society Open Science|volume=3|issue=9|pages=160462|bibcode=2016RSOS....360462A|doi=10.1098/rsos.160462|pmc=5043327|pmid=27703708}}</ref> and northern South America<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Simões TR, Wilner E, Caldwell MW, Weinschütz LC, Kellner AW|date=August 2015|title=A stem acrodontan lizard in the Cretaceous of Brazil revises early lizard evolution in Gondwana|journal=[[Nature Communications]]|volume=6|issue=1|pages=8149|bibcode=2015NatCo...6.8149S|doi=10.1038/ncomms9149|pmc=4560825|pmid=26306778}}</ref> by the early [[Late Cretaceous]]. The cause of the decline of Rhynchocephalia remains unclear, but has often been suggested to be due to competition with advanced lizards and mammals.<ref name="Jones-2009">{{cite journal|vauthors=Jones ME, Tennyson AJ, Worthy JP, Evans SE, Worthy TH|date=April 2009|title=A sphenodontine (Rhynchocephalia) from the Miocene of New Zealand and palaeobiogeography of the tuatara (Sphenodon)|journal=Proceedings. Biological Sciences|volume=276|issue=1660|pages=1385–90|doi=10.1098/rspb.2008.1785|pmc=2660973|pmid=19203920}}</ref> They appear to have remained diverse in high-latitude southern South America during the Late Cretaceous, where lizards remained rare, with their remains outnumbering terrestrial lizards 200:1.<ref name="Apesteguía-2016" />