Jurassifacts

  • The Jurassic is named after the Jura mountains of Europe
  • Ammonites are very common in the Jurassic and the name ammonite is from the Greek ram-horned god, Ammon

ammonite

An ammonite from the Toarcian, Yorkshire, UK. 10 cm across. (Image: Angela Coe)

  • The Jurassic can be subdivided into more than 150 stratigraphic levels based on ammonite evolution
  • During the Jurassic there was only a single (super)continent – Pangaea
  • The Jurassic is the only geological period to give its name to a major feature film franchise
  • The Jurassic is the only geological period with a World Heritage Site (The Jurassic Coast of southern England)
  • Many of the World’s most important historic cities are built using Jurassic stone – including Jaiselmeer and Oxford
  • The Jurassic witnessed one of the most extreme global warming events during the Toarcian
  • About 50% of the worlds oil and gas reserves are from the Jurassic
  • There are three GSSPs in the Jurassic still to be defined
  • The boundary between the Jurassic and Cretaceous is yet to be formally defined, but work is in progress

ammonite

Ham Hill Stone, a bioclastic grainstone of Toarcian- age that forms a freestone and has been commonly used for buildings in Somerset since Roman times. (Image: Angela Coe)

  • The Jurassic was initiated after one of the most intense mass extinctions on Earth at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary
  • The earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx, evolved in the Jurassic