:
The
Jurassic is a
geologic period and system that extends from about
Ma (million years ago) to Ma, that is, from the end of the
Triassic to the beginning of the
Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the
Mesozoic era, also known as the "Age of Reptiles". The start of the period is marked by the major
Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. However the end of the Jurassic Period did not witness any major extinction event. The start and end of the period are defined by carefully selected locations; the uncertainty in dating arises from trying to date these horizons.
The chronostratigraphic term
Jurassic is directly linked to the Swiss
Jura Mountains.
Alexander von Humboldt (*1769, † 1859) recognised the mainly
limestone dominated mountain range of the Swiss
Jura Mountains as a separate formation that was not at the time included in the established stratigraphic system defined by
Abraham Gottlob Werner (* 1749, † 1817) and named it “Jurakalk” in 1795.
[Hölder, H. 1964. Jura - Handbuch der stratigraphischen Geologie, IV. Enke-Verlag, 603 pp., 158 figs, 43 tabs; Stuttgart][Arkell, W.J. 1956. Jurassic Geology of the World. Oliver & Boyd, 806 pp.; Edinburgh und London.][Pieńkowski, G.; Schudack, M.E.; Bosák, P.; Enay, R.; Feldman-Olszewska, A.; Golonka, J.; Gutowski, J.; Herngreen, G.F.W.; Jordan, P.; Krobicki, M.; Lathuiliere, B.; Leinfelder, R.R.; Michalík, J.; Mönnig, E.; Noe-Nygaard, N.; Pálfy, J.; Pint, A.; Rasser, M.W.; Reisdorf, A.G.; Schmid, D.U.; Schweigert, G.; Surlyk, F.; Wetzel, A. & Theo E. Wong, T.E. 2008. Jurassic. In: McCann, T. (ed.): The Geology of Central Europe. Volume 2: Mesozoic and Cenozoic, Geological Society, pp.: 823-922; London.] The name “Jura” is derived from the celtic root “jor” which was latinised into “juria”, meaning forest (i.e. “Jura” is forest mountains).
[Rollier, L. 1903. Das Schweizerische Juragebirge. Sonderabdruck aus dem Geographischen Lexikon der Schweiz, Verlag von Gebr. Attinger, 39 pp; Neuenburg] Divisions
The Jurassic period of time is usually broken into
Early,
Middle, and
Late Jurassic subdivisions, also known as
Lias,
Dogger and
Malm in Europe.
[Kazlev, M. Alan (2002) Accessed July. 22, 2008] The corresponding terms for the rocks are Lower, Middle, and Upper Jurassic. The separation of the term
Jurassic into three sections goes back to
Leopold von Buch (* 1774, † 1853).
The
faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:
Paleogeography and tectonics
During the early Jurassic period, the
supercontinent Pangaea broke up into the northern supercontinent
Laurasia and the southern supercontinent
Gondwana; the
Gulf of Mexico opened in the new rift between North America and what is now Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula. The Jurassic North
Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow, while the South Atlantic did not open until the following Cretaceous Period, when Gondwana itself rifted apart. The
Tethys Sea closed, and the
Neotethys basin appeared. Climates were warm, with no evidence of
glaciation. As in the Triassic, there was apparently no land near either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed.
The Jurassic geological record is good in western
Europe, where extensive marine sequences indicate a time when much of the continent was submerged under shallow tropical seas; famous locales include the
Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and the renowned late Jurassic
lagerstätten of
Holzmaden and
Solnhofen. In contrast, the North American Jurassic record is the poorest of the Mesozoic, with few outcrops at the surface. Though the
epicontinental Sundance Sea left marine deposits in parts of the northern plains of the
United States and
Canada during the late Jurassic, most exposed sediments from this period are continental, such as the
alluvial deposits of the
Morrison Formation.
The Jurassic was a time of
calcite sea geochemistry in which low-magnesium
calcite was the primary inorganic marine precipitate of calcium carbonate.
Carbonate hardgrounds were thus very common, along with calcitic
ooids, calcitic cements, and invertebrate faunas with dominantly calcitic skeletons (Stanley and Hardie, 1998, 1999).
The first of several massive
batholiths were emplaced in the northern
Cordillera beginning in the mid-Jurassic, marking the
Nevadan orogeny. Important Jurassic exposures are also found in
Russia,
India,
South America,
Japan,
Australasia, and the
United Kingdom.
Africa
Early Jurassic strata are distributed in a similar fashion to Late Triassic beds, with more common outcrops in the south and less common fossil beds which are predominated by tracks to the north.
As the Jurassic proceeded, larger and more iconic groups of dinosaurs like sauropods and ornithopods proliferated in Africa.
Middle Jurassic strata are neither well represented nor well studied in Africa.
Late Jurassic strata are also poorly represented apart from the spectacular Tendeguru fauna in Tanzania.
The Late Jurassic life of Tendeguru is very similar to
that found in western North America's
Morrison Formation.
[Jacobs, Louis, L. (1997). "African Dinosaurs." Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Edited by Phillip J. Currie and Kevin Padian. Academic Press. p. 2-4.] Fauna
Large dinosaurs were dominant during the Jurassic Period.
Ichthyosaurus from Liassic oil slates in Holzmaden, southern
Germany.
Gigandipus, a
dinosaur footprint in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, southwestern Utah.
Aquatic and marine
During the Jurassic, the primary vertebrates living in the seas were
fish and marine
reptiles. The latter include
ichthyosaurs who were at the peak of their diversity,
plesiosaurs,
pliosaurs, marine
crocodiles, of the families
Teleosauridae and
Metriorhynchidae.
In the
invertebrate world, several new groups appeared, including
rudists (a
reef-forming variety of
bivalves) and
belemnites. The Jurassic also had diverse encrusting and boring (sclerobiont) communities (see Taylor & Wilson, 2003), and it saw a significant rise in the
bioerosion of carbonate shells and hardgrounds. Especially common is the
ichnogenus (
trace fossil)
Gastrochaenolites.
During the Jurassic period about four or five of the twelve
clades of planktonic organisms that exist in the fossil record either experienced a massive evolutionary radiation or appeared for the first time.
Terrestrial
On land, large
archosaurian reptiles remained dominant. The Jurassic was the golden age of the large herbivorous dinosaurs known as the
sauropods—
Camarasaurus,
Apatosaurus,
Diplodocus,
Brachiosaurus, and many others—that roamed the land late in the period; their mainstays were either the
prairies of
ferns, palm-like
cycads and
bennettitales, or the higher coniferous growth, according to their adaptations. They were preyed upon by large
theropods as for example
Ceratosaurus,
Megalosaurus,
Torvosaurus and
Allosaurus. All these belong to the 'lizard hipped' or
saurischian branch of the
dinosaurs.
During the Late Jurassic, the first
birds evolved from small
coelurosaurian dinosaurs.
Ornithischian dinosaurs were less predominant than saurischian dinosaurs, although some like
stegosaurs and small
ornithopods played important roles as small and medium-to-large (but not sauropod-sized) herbivores. In the air,
pterosaurs were common; they ruled the skies, filling many ecological roles now taken by
birds.
The rest of the
Lissamphibia evolved in this period, introducing the first
salamanders and
caecilians.
Flora
Conifers were common in the Jurassic period.
The arid, continental conditions characteristic of the
Triassic steadily eased during the Jurassic period, especially at higher latitudes; the warm, humid climate allowed lush jungles to cover much of the landscape.
[Haines, 2000.] Gymnosperms were relatively diverse during the Jurassic period.
The
Conifers in particular dominated the flora, as during the Triassic; they were the most diverse group and constituted the majority of large trees. Extant conifer families that flourished during the Jurassic included the
Araucariaceae,
Cephalotaxaceae,
Pinaceae,
Podocarpaceae,
Taxaceae and
Taxodiaceae. The extinct Mesozoic conifer family
Cheirolepidiaceae dominated low latitude vegetation, as did the shrubby
Bennettitales.
[Behrensmeyer et al., 1992, 352] Cycads were also common, as were
ginkgos and
Dicksoniaceous tree ferns in the forest.
Smaller
ferns were probably the dominant undergrowth.
Caytoniaceous seed ferns were another group of important plants during this time and are thought to have been shrub to small-tree sized. Ginkgo plants were particularly common in the mid- to high northern latitudes.
In the Southern Hemisphere,
podocarps were especially successful, while Ginkgos and
Czekanowskiales were rare.
In the oceans modern
coralline algae appeared for the first time.
