Pangaea

About 140 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period, the flowering plants (angiosperms) evolved, and would soon change the face of the Earth.

There was a minor mass extinction toward the end of the early Jurassic period (roughly 190-183 million years ago) in which more than 80% of marine bivalve species (like many clams) and many other shallow-water species died out. The cause of this extinction is unknown, but there is some speculation (by sedimentologist Stephen P. Hesselbo et al.) that it was triggered by the release of huge methane deposits from within the Earth (these deposits formed beneath the seabed as surface algae dies and sinks to the sea floor).

Also, Archaeopteryx, the first, primitive, dinosaur-like bird appeared about 150 million years ago, toward the end of the Jurassic. There were also pterosaurs , flying reptiles which were the largest vertebrates ever known to fly.

In the Jurassic seas, there were abundant coral reefs, fish, ichthyosaurs (fishlike reptiles), plesiosaurs, giant marine crocodiles , ammonites, squid , sharks and the first rays .

Plant lines from the Triassic continued. There were many tufted, palm-like cycads, seed ferns , gingkos, and conifers in the subtropical forests.

In the Middle Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea started to drift apart. A north-south rift formed in mid-Jurassic, and by the late Jurassic, the separation of the continents of Laurasia and Gondwana was almost complete.

PANGAEA

There was a minor mass extinction toward the end of the Jurassic period. During this extinction, most of the stegosaurid and enormous sauropod dinosaurs died out, as did many genera of ammonoids, marine reptiles, and bivalves. No one knows what caused this extinction.

Printout:
Jurassic animal printouts