Jurassic Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about 135 to 195 million years before the present. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified, but the exact dates of the start and end are uncertain by 5 - 10 million years. The Jurassic was named by Alexandre Brongniart for the extensive marine limestone exposures of the Jura Mountains in the region where Germany, France and Switzerland meet. The Jurassic follows the Triassic, is followed by the Cretaceous, and constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era -- the Age of Dinosaurs. The start of the Jurassic is marked by the major Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.The Jurassic is usually broken into lower, middle, and upper subdivisions, also known as Lias, Dogger and Malm. The Faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:
| Malm | |
| Tithonian | (135-141 M.y.) |
| Kimmeridgean | (141-146 M.y.) |
| Oxfordian | (146-154 M.y.) |
| Dogger | |
| Callovian | (154-160 M.y.) |
| Bathonian | (160-164 M.y.) |
| Bajocian | (164-170 M.y.) |
| Aalenian | (170-175 M.y.) |
| Lias | |
| Toarcian | (175-184 M.y.) |
| Pliensbachian | (184-191 M.y.) |
| Sinemurian | (191-200 M.y.) |
| Hettangian | (200-203 M.y.) |
During the Early Jurassic, the supercontinent of Pangea broke up into North America, Eurasia and Gondwana. Still, the early Atlantic and Tethyan Oceans were relatively narrow. In the late Jurassic, the southern continent, Gondwana, started to break up. Climates were warm with no evidence of glaciation. As in the Triassic, apparently there was no land near either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed. The geological record of the Jurassic is well exposed in western Europe, were marine sequences are found along the coasts. A shallow sea (epicontinental sea) was present in parts of the northern plains of the United States and Canada. Most Jurassic exposures in North America are continental. Important Jurassic exposures are also found in Russia, India, South America, Japan, Australasia, and the United Kingdom.
During the Jurassic, the "highest" life forms living in the seas were fish and marine reptiles. In the invertebrate world, several new groups appeared, such as:
- planktonic foraminifera and calpionelids, of great stratigraphic relevance
- rudists, a reef-forming variety of bivalves
- belemnites and
- brachiopods of the terebratulid and rinchonelid groups
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