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JURASSIC |
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THE JURASSIC PERIOD
200 TO 145 Million Years Ago
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The
Age of Dinosaurs - Part 1
Reptiles grow Huge and Dominate the Land, Sea and Air
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| Oh God
. . . You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures,
for it is quaking. - Psalms 60:2
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Paleo-Geography |
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- Pangea supercontinent
begins to split with significant mountain-building and volcanism;
seas fill rift zones
- Panthalassa
and Tethys oceans
begin shrinking
- Climate warm and humid with vast tropical forests
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Life |
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- Dinosaurs dominate
the land
- Sauropods (right)
flourish and grow to enormous size -
the largest land animals in earth history
- Large Theropod
carnivores (right) proliferate
- Pterosaurs
fill the skies (below right)
- First birds (below
right) arise from small dinosaurs
- Marine reptiles (ichthyosaurs
& plesiosaurs)
flourish
- Gymnosperm
trees (conifers, ginkos; cycads) form
global forests with vast 'prairies' of ferns
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Jurassic Combat in the Great Age of Dinosaurs:
Theropod Allosaurus attacks Sauropod Diplodocus
(Image:John Sibbick, Nova
Online)
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Ichtyosaurus (upper left) and Plesiosaur
were among the many reptiles that proliferated
in the Jurassic seas.
(Image: Fossilien)
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Reptiles morphed into flying forms that filled Jurassic skies: Pterodactylus,
(far right) a relative of the dinosaurs,
and the primitive bird Archaeopteryx
(near right), descended from dinosaurs.
(Image: Dinosauria
von A bis Z) |
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