The Jurassic Period and the fossils of a changing world

Explore the collection

• Diablophis

  Diablophis gilmorei is a fragmentary Morrison Formation squamate once placed near the snake stem; a 2025 study formalised Parviraptoridae but left the genus too incomplete for its analyses.

• Eophis

  Eophis underwoodi is based on fragmentary Middle Jurassic jaw bones from England; a 2025 study treated the name as dubious and the material as indeterminate Parviraptoridae.

• Eutretauranosuchus

  Eutretauranosuchus delfsi is a Late Jurassic goniopholidid known from three informative skulls. CT work revealed its unusual open nasopharyngeal passage, while most of the body remains poorly sampled.

• Hsisosuchus

  Hsisosuchus is a mesoeucrocodylian known from several Jurassic formations in Sichuan and Yunnan. Three named species preserve different amounts of skull and skeleton, while a newly described abdominal armour shield shows that the genus was more variable than one reconstruction suggests.

• Portugalophis

  Portugalophis lignites is a Kimmeridgian squamate from the Guimarota coal beds of Portugal. Three jaw fossils support its description as an early snake, although its position among the earliest snakes remains debated.

• Reading the Jurassic rock record: layers, fossils and time

  Jurassic rocks record shifting seas and landscapes. Geologists combine stratigraphy, fossils and radiometric dates to reconstruct their sequence.

• Jurassic food webs and ancient ecosystems

  See how fossils help reconstruct Jurassic food webs, from plant-eating dinosaurs to predators, and where an imagined day exceeds the evidence.

• Dinosaur colour evidence – what fossils can and cannot show

  Melanosomes preserve clues to colour in a small number of dinosaurs, but fossil pigments do not provide a complete palette or prove camouflage by themselves.

• Jurassic Pterosaurs Along the Shore

  Jurassic pterosaurs ranged from long-tailed fishers to other coastal foragers. Their fossils reveal diversity, while exact flight and feeding scenes remain reconstructed.

• Jurassic island evolution: Europasaurus and the archipelago

  How Late Jurassic seas divided Europe into islands, what Europasaurus fossils show about small body size, and why island dwarfism is an interpretation rather than a rule.

• Life beyond the shore in Jurassic oceans

  Jurassic marine reptiles occupied different depths and feeding roles. Teeth, gut contents and sediment reveal offshore food webs, with important limits on what fossils preserve.

• Jurassic ocean circulation: changing seas and seaways

  Jurassic oceans changed as Pangaea broke apart. Seaways, circulation, productivity and oxygen varied by basin and geological interval.

• Jurassic rivers and lakes in the fossil record

  Early Jurassic lake deposits in China and Late Jurassic river-floodplain rocks in North America preserve different freshwater communities and burial histories.

• Jurassic dinosaur nests: eggs, hatchlings and care

  What Jurassic nests and embryos reveal about dinosaur reproduction, and where evidence for colonial nesting or parental care remains limited.

• Allosaurus and the predators of Jurassic ecosystems

  Meet the large theropods of Jurassic ecosystems and see how fossils constrain claims about prey, competition and hunting.

• Life in the Jurassic ocean

  Explore Jurassic marine life, from ammonites and fishes to ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, and see what fossils can reveal about ancient seas.

• Jurassic dinosaur evolution: branching lineages and adaptations

  Jurassic dinosaurs diversified into distinct lineages, but their evolution was branching, regional and unevenly recorded in fossils.

• Jurassic islands: fossils and life in the Solnhofen archipelago

  How Late Jurassic lagoons and islands around Solnhofen preserved Archaeopteryx, Compsognathus and other fossils, and what this record cannot show about every island.

• Jurassic Pangaea – rifting, coastlines and opening oceans

  Jurassic geography is reconstructed from plate motions, rocks, fossils and palaeomagnetism; Pangaea fragmented gradually rather than splitting in one event.

• How Jurassic dinosaurs grew from hatchlings to adults

  Embryos, juveniles and bone histology reveal varied growth in Jurassic dinosaurs, without supporting one timetable for every species.

• Jurassic climate and weather

  Learn how Jurassic climate varied by region and time, and what the Toarcian ocean anoxic event reveals about environmental disruption.

• Jurassic sea monsters: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and more

  Meet the marine reptiles of Jurassic seas: streamlined ichthyosaurs, long-necked plesiosaurs, powerful pliosaurs and the ammonites used to date rocks.

• Plants and forests of the Jurassic

  Meet the gymnosperms, ferns and horsetails that shaped Jurassic vegetation, and learn how plant fossils reconstruct ancient forests.

• What was Earth like 150 million years ago?

  A fossil-based view of Earth about 150 million years ago, when Pangaea was breaking apart and Jurassic land, sea and climate varied by region.

• Jurassic vs Cretaceous periods

  Compare the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods by dates, continents, climate, plants, dinosaur groups, marine life and the events that ended each interval.

• Abrictosaurus: a rare articulated heterodontosaurid

  Explore the Abrictosaurus holotype, its articulated skeleton, tooth differences and the limits of claims about sex, diet and movement.

No pages match that search. Try another title or term.