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Study of ammonites and bivalves along selected sections on the Andean margin of northern Peru and Ecuador has made it possible to recognize correlatable marine transgressions and to propose a refined stratigraphic framework for the Upper Cretaceous of the region. Six maximum flooding events are recognized: latest Turonian-early Coniacian (major event), late Coniacian-early Santonian, late Santonian-early Campanian, mid Campanian-early late Campanian (major event), early Maastrichtian (major event), and terminal early Maastrichtian. Most of these events can be correlated with global eustatic sea-level rises, but their relative manifestations indicate that the Andean margin was already being deformed by the late Cretaceous "Peruvian" tectonic events. The onset of fine-grained clastic sedimentation in the Oriente and East-Peruvian basins in the mid Turonian-earliest Coniacian is taken as the first event of the "Peruvian" phase. The Campanian regional transgression in the Peruvian-Ecuadorian forearc zones concealed the "Peruvian" deformational event. The latter caused a palaeogeographic upheaval, indicated by the subsequent development of a NNE-trending forearc basin, which extended from Paita in northwestern Peru to northern Ecuador. In the forearc zones only short-lived transgressions are recorded in the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian as a result of nearly continuous tectonic activity. This culminated with a significant tectonic event in the late Maastrichtian, causing a widespread hiatus.