Mini-research project: Geological time

The Jurassic Period 201.3 to 145.0 MYA

By Juliana Bernal

What was the world like

Climate / Atmosphere

Date Range

Fun Facts !

Organism at the time

Date range: 201.3 million years ago–145.0 million years ago Length: 56.3 million years (1.2% of geologic time) Geologic calendar: December 16 (1 AM)–December 20 (12 Noon) (4 days, 11 hours)

There were small carnivorous rodent/lizard like dinosours as well as some of the first birds. The flora was ferns, ginkgoes, bennettitaleans or "cycadeoids," and true cycads.

The time period was known for it's wet and warm climate ideal for the many of the flora and herbivores who relly on them.

- Named for the Jura Mountains on the border between France and Switzerland, where rocks of this age were first studied

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Two Dinosour groups

Saurischia (“lizard-hipped” dinosaurs)

Ornithischia (“bird-hipped” dinosaurs)

- Sauropodomorpha: includes both the “prosauropods” and the Sauropoda. Prosauropods were probably a paraphyletic (artificial) group of largely herbivorous, dominantly bipedal dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus. The Sauropoda were long-necked, long-tailed, enormous herbivorous dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus. - Theropoda: consists of the carnivorous dinosaurs. The Theropoda includes some extinct dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Dilophosaurus. Birds descended from Theropoda.

- Thyreophora: includes the various armored dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. - Marginocephalia: consists mainly of the pachycephalosaurs (bone heads) and the ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs) such as Triceratops. - Ornithopoda: includes not only small bipedal plant eaters like Hypsilophodon but also the often large hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) like Maiasaura and Edmontosaurus.

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National Park Service, "The Jurassic Period", 5

National Park Service, "The Jurassic Period", 4

Major Events

Extinction Events

Mammals

End of the Period

Lizards

During this time period in the oceans there is said to be smaller extenctions due to volcainc activity from the shifting plates.

There are three hypothesis for why the Jurassic Period ended: the first is volcanic activity leading to climate change, then ice age caused by natural variation in solar radiation, and finally the rising and falling of dea levelts.

In this time period we saw the the evolution of therian mammals.

In this time period we saw the appearance of the earliest lizarsds.

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References

Web links

National Perks Services

UCMP Berkley

Jurassic Climates

The Jurassic Period by National Park Services

“Jurassic Period-201.3 to 145.0 Mya (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/000/jurassic-period.htm. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

The Jurassic Period by UCMP Berkley

Waggoner, Ben. The Jurassic Period, 2009, ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/jurassic/jurassic.php#:~:text=This%20was%20the%20Jurassic%20Period,of%20the%20movie%20Jurassic%20Park.

Jurassic Climates

Bruce W. Sellwood 1, et al. “Jurassic Climates.” Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, Elsevier, 19 Feb. 2009, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787859800687#:~:text=During%20the%20Jurassic%2C%20the%20world,and%20other%20climatically%20sensitive%20facies.

Mammalls

The Jurassic saw the fastest mammal evolution. Mammaliaforms that arose during the Jurassic radiation included the semi-aquatic, beaver-like Castorocauda; Maiopatagium, which likely resembled today's flying squirrels; and the tree-climbing Henkelotherium. During the middle of the period the mamalls were evolving up to 10 times faster then they were by the end.

A general Overview

There were a mixture of birdlike and lizard-like dinosaurs. Flora such as lush ferns, conifers, and within the greenery were a number of early mammals. There were oceans full of sea-life such as squid, ammonities, ichthyosaurs and long-necked plesiosaurs.

Karaurus sharovi

one of the earliest known salamanders, from Kazakhstan

Temperature

It was mostly warm with at least four times the present level of atmospheric CO2. With the average temperature in the northern hemisphere between 27 to even 40 degrees.

Bellairsia gracilis

One of the most complete lizard fossils found in the jurassic period found in Scotland.

Extinction

While there weren't many extinction events in the jurassic period the beginning of the period was marked by the extinction event at the end of the Triassic. There were details of a smaller extinction thought to have been the result of large volcanic eruptions.

Fun Facts

- The period was named for the Jura Mountains on the border between France and Switzerland, where rocks of this age were first studied. - The oilfields of the North Sea are Jurassic in age and still play a major economic use for us today. - The largest bony fish ever to live existed in the jurassic period. - The name of the supercontinent during the Jurassic, "Pangea," means "all/entire/whole earth/land" in Greek. The continents continued to move apart, and volcanic activity was especially intense - Crocodylians made the transition from a terrestrial to an aquatic mode of life. - Flowering plants appeared for the first time, and new insects evolved to pollinate flowers.

First Bird Dinosours

The Jurassic also saw the origination of the first birds, including the well-known Archaeopteryx, probably from coelurosaurian ancestors