page_title: Jurassic
section_title: Terrestrial
hierarchical_section_title: Jurassic / Fauna / Terrestrial
caption_attribution_description: English: Remake of the original picture of the Drzewica Formation. Terrestrial environment of the Toarcian of Łęczna (Ciechocinek Formation, Lublin, Poland), based on the Bogdanka Coal Mine Flora. Inland environment of the Polish Realm of the Ciechocinek Formation (Mostly Seashore or related). Ciechocinek Formation is dated from the Lower to Middle Toarcian(Pieńkowski, 2004) and it is que regional equivalent of the Posidonia Shale. The Fauna and flora appear based on the reported Footprints &amp; fossil wood Diversified trace fossils (Specially Invertebrates) are common. Dinosaurs are based on material found on various locations of the formation. Dinosaur Species appeared: Orionides spp. The assignation to the Orionides Group comes tho the find of dorsal vertebrae on the German Margin of the formation (Huene, 1966). Gravisauria spp. representing the Grimmen Sauropod reported on 2014. Coelophysoidea spp. based on coeval Anchisauripus tracks. Basal Ornithischan, related to Eocursor, based on a crouching trace (Gerard Dariusz Gierlinski, Martin G. Lockley, Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki:2009). Massospondylidae spp. based on Otozum-like tracks.
context_page_description: The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles. The start of the period was marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Two other extinction events occurred during the period: the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction in the Early Jurassic, and the Tithonian event at the end; neither event ranks among the "Big Five" mass extinctions, however.
  The Jurassic period is divided into three epochs: Early, Middle, and Late. Similarly, in stratigraphy, the Jurassic is divided into the Lower Jurassic, Middle Jurassic, and Upper Jurassic series of rock formations.
  The Jurassic is named after the Jura Mountains in the European Alps, where limestone strata from the period were first identified.
  By the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had begun rifting into two landmasses: Laurasia to the north, and Gondwana to the south.
context_section_description: On land, various archosaurian reptiles remained dominant. The Jurassic was a golden age for the large herbivorous dinosaurs known as the sauropods—Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and many others—that roamed the land late in the period; their foraging grounds were either the prairies of ferns, palm-like cycads and bennettitales, or the higher coniferous growth, according to their adaptations. The smaller Ornithischian herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurs and small ornithopods were less predominant, but played important roles. They were preyed upon by large theropods, such as Ceratosaurus, Megalosaurus, Torvosaurus and Allosaurus, all these belong to the 'lizard hipped' or saurischian branch of the dinosaurs.
  During the Late Jurassic, the first avialans, like Archaeopteryx, evolved from small coelurosaurian dinosaurs. In the air, pterosaurs were common; they ruled the skies, filling many ecological roles now taken by birds, and may have already produced some of the largest flying animals of all time. Within the undergrowth were various types of early mammals, as well as tritylodonts, lizard-like sphenodonts, and early lissamphibians. The rest of the Lissamphibia evolved in this period, introducing the first salamanders and caecilians.
caption: Terrestrial environment of the Toarcian of Łęczna (Ciechocinek Formation, Lublin, Poland), based on the Bogdanka Coal Mine Flora. Dinosaurs are based on material found on various locations of the formation
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4360", "Image ImageLength": "2768", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:12:04 11:44:42", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7007", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4307", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2344"}