Dinosaurs of the Jurassic

Dinosaurs of the Jurassic — page 1 — A UR ASIA Equators THYS SEA SEA India WVANA Antarcti 200 mya 170 mya 175 200 Millions of years ago mya EARLY JURASSIC MIDDLE 200 mya Earth is recovering 190 mya Hot dry weather from Triassic Jurassic dominates the land Dinosaurs start to diversify into many varieties extinction event The Jurassic Period The start of the period is marked by the major Triassic Jurassic extinction event During the early Jurassic period the supercontinent Pangaea broke up into the northern continent Laurasia and the Southern continent Gondwana Climates were warm and no land was near either pole The climate changed from dry to humid and many of the arid deserts of the Triassic were replaced by rainforests Conifers dominated the flora and made up the majority of large trees Cycads ginkgos and tree ferns were also common in the

Dinosaurs of the Jurassic — page 2 — AURASTA sia TER Equator CONDWA SEA STE ONDwAD Antarctica 150 mya 120 miya 161 145 JURASSIC LATE JURASSIC Massive climate change resulting in heavy rains that create tropical lush rainforests Giant plant eating sauropods such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus rapidly increased in numbers Cryolophosaurus lived in what is today Antarctica LIFE DURING THE JURASSIC After the Triassic Jurassic extinction event the dinosaurs took over from the dinosauromorph and crocodilomorph archosaurs as the dominant animal group The first birds evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs The seas and oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs The pterosaurs dominated the

Dinosaurs of the Jurassic — page 3 — Jurassic Period 198 mya Africa Lesothosaurus Lesothosaurus lived in the hot dry conditions of what is South Africa today Its name means lizard from Lesotho and was named after the place where its fossils were first found Lesothosaurus was one of the earliest ornithischians It walked on two legs and had small arms and hands Its slender body was balanced by a long tail Like all ornithischians it had a small beak at the ends of its upper and lower jaws At the back it had leaf shaped teeth Near

Dinosaurs of the Jurassic — page 4 — A group of Heterodontosauruses 1 run from the attentions of a plant eating Massospondylus 2 In the foreground a pair of Lesothosauruses 3 feed on plants on a fallen trunk from early Jurassic South Africa the front of the upper jaws were 12 fang like teeth It sliced up plant material but could not chew Living alongside it were similar plant eaters called Heterodontosaurus Like Lesothosaurus it had a beak and two types of teeth It also had an unusual pair of small tusks A large prosauropod called Massospondylus shared the environment It had a large thumb claw used for feeding and defense against predators Lesothosaurus grew to about 3 3 feet 1 m long and weighed about 22 pounds 10

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