Qalmanian

The Qalmanian is a geologic period that lasted from 143 to 91 million years ago. It is the penultimate period of the Neomesolithic Era. Its name is derived from a misspelling of the city of Zir-Qalam in the Empire of Yimmu-Audal, where rocks of this age were first described.

The Qalmanian saw the evolution of the first of most modern types of organisms. Several large clades of extant plants and animals evolved around this time, including most modern fish, crocodilian, turtle, snake, and amphibian families. Most notably, however, were the first flowering plants that appeared at this time and the symbiotic insects that evolved along with them.

Many of the basal forms of large Iridaceous flora and fauna would evolve at this time, such as the first rosids, palms, thalassosaurs, dinychids, and ceratopsian dinosaurs. However, these ancestral organisms would remain small in size and low in biodiversity until the Iridaceous itself, as would many of the aforementioned extant families.

The extinction event at the period's close, roughly 91 million years ago, would eliminate many of the "old guard" of Neomesolithic biodiversity. The extinction of several kinds of older marine reptiles, pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and plants allowed for newer clades to radiate into their formerly occupied niches. The Ichthyosaurs were particularly hard-hit, going completely extinct, and many large-bodied herbivorous dinosaurs disappeared regionally as well. Corals and rudist bivalves experienced large extinctions, though rudists would go on to recover in the following period. Corals would not recover until the Cuiciloan period.