Aqua Partners

Cretaceous and Maelstrom are the main antagonists of Blue Sky's 3rd full-length animated feature film Ice Age: The Meltdown, the second installment in the Ice Age franchise.

They are a duo of prehistoric carnivorous sea reptiles who delight in eating animals for food. They were also the archenemies of Manny, Sid, Diego, and Ellie.

Their vocal sound effects were provided by Nick Inhofe.

Cretaceous and Maelstrom were first seen thawing out in a melting pack of ice. Their first victim upon defrosting was Fast Tony's unintelligent Glyptodon sidekick named Stu, who was testing his snorkeler too close to them.

At one point, the pair attack the herd while they were crossing a frozen area of water. Cretaceous targeted Manny only because he was the biggest animal in the whole herd, while Maelstrom attacked Sid and Diego when they get separated from the others. Despite their efforts to devour them, the herd manages to elude the two predators.

They later appear again in the climax when Ellie is trapped in a cave during the rising flood. When Manny and his friends come to Ellie's aid, the pair drag Manny into the depths of the water as he tried to save Ellie. Manny manages to escape the pair and the reptiles continue pursuing him, but Manny tricks them into hitting a log wedged beside a large rock. This causes the giant rock to fall down and crush the two vicious reptiles to death in the process, which also frees Ellie.

In the novelization, it is revealed that their remains were eaten by the Lone Gunslinger and the vultures from cheating to eating animals for food.

Cretaceous is a slender indigo Metriorhynchus. He is shown in the beginning frozen in a great block of ice that was jarred loose when the wall of ice began crumbling. The ice melted, releasing both him and Maelstrom into the lake which was all but abandoned by most animals. When they made it to the ice lake, the first animal that they had encountered and eaten was Stu, leaving behind only his shell. The two sea reptiles then swam further down the series of rivers where they eventually reached Manny's herd as well as Crash, Eddie, and Ellie. Cretaceous made a great lunge at Manny, but his jaws were caught on his tusks, only to be flung far off as he twisted his head to throw the predator, hitting a piece of ice and falling back into the water on his way.

Later, when the dam broke, the two reptiles went swimming on the wall of water that was slowly approaching towards the escaping masses and pulled down Manny when he was swimming to save Ellie. Manny devised a plan to rid himself of the two sea reptiles by having them try to chase him, he tricked them into hitting a log that was wedged under a large rock. The plan worked so well, freeing Ellie, and the boulder falls on Cretaceous and his partner Maelstrom, killing them both.

Maelstrom is a burly teal green Globidens. During his first appearance, he is shown in the beginning frozen in a great block of ice that was jarred loose when the wall of ice began crumbling. The ice melted, releasing both Cretaceous and him into the lake which was all but abandoned by most animals. The first animal they encountered after being released was Stu. They quickly devoured the unfortunate Glyptodon, leaving behind only his shell. The two sea reptiles then swam further down water channels, where they eventually reached Manny's herd, along with Crash, Eddie, and Ellie. Maelstrom intended to eat Sid but could not catch him, as Sid was already escaping with Diego, and had only just escaped Maelstrom as he broke off a massive chunk of ice where the sloth and saber-tooth had stood only moments before, with the duo having tricked him.

Later, when the dam broke, the two reptiles went swimming on the wall of water that was slowly approaching towards the escaping masses and pulled down Manny when he was swimming to save Ellie. Manny devised a plan to rid himself of the two sea reptiles, by having them try to chase him, he tricked them into hitting a log that was wedged under a large rock. The plan worked so well, freeing Ellie and crushing Cretaceous and Maelstrom to death.

Cretaceous and Maelstrom are depicted as nasty, aggressive, hot-tempered, impatient, and voracious. It was demonstrated that Cretaceous and Maelstrom pursued their prey with aggression and tenacity, and that they became readily enraged if the prey evaded them. Cretaceous's pursuit of Manny, the biggest member of the herd, demonstrated his avarice, while Maelstrom also preyed on Sid and Diego when they became isolated from the rest of the herd.