The first sharks, rays and crabs also first appeared during the period.Įtymology and history Portrait of Alexandre Brongniart, who coined the term 'Jurassic' The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, while pterosaurs were the dominant flying vertebrates. Crocodylomorphs made the transition from a terrestrial to an aquatic life. Other major events include the appearance of the earliest lizards and the evolution of therian mammals. The first birds appeared during the Jurassic, evolving from a branch of theropod dinosaurs. On land, the fauna transitioned from the Triassic fauna, dominated jointly by dinosauromorph and pseudosuchian archosaurs, to one dominated by dinosaurs alone.

Forests grew close to the poles, with large arid expanses in the lower latitudes. The climate of the Jurassic was warmer than the present, and there were no ice caps. The end of the Jurassic, however, has no clear, definitive boundary with the Cretaceous and is the only boundary between geological periods to remain formally undefined.īy the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had begun rifting into two landmasses: Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. The beginning of the Toarcian Stage started around 183 million years ago and is marked by the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, a global episode of oceanic anoxia, ocean acidification, and elevated global temperatures associated with extinctions, likely caused by the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous provinces. The start of the Jurassic was marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, associated with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era and is named after the Jura Mountains, where limestone strata from the period were first identified. The Jurassic ( / dʒ ʊ ˈ r æ s ɪ k/ juu- RASS-ik ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period 201.4 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 145 Mya. Vertical axis scale: millions of years ago.įirst appearance of the ammonite Psiloceras spelae tirolicum. Subdivision of the Jurassic according to the ICS, as of 2022.

Jurassic world 1 map