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The Late Jurassic (or Malm) Epoch of the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 Period is the unit of geologic time
Geologic time scale

File:Geologic clock.jpgThe geologic time scale is a chronology schema relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologys and other earth sciences scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth....
 from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago, which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata
Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes it from contiguous layers....
.

Late Jurassic is divided into three ages, which correspond with the three (faunal) stages of Upper Jurassic rock:



lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m2336378",this)' onMouseout='hide("m2336378")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Pangaea">Pangaea
Pangaea

Pangaea, Pang?a or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
 broke up into two supercontinent
Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and terrane that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today....
s, Laurasia
Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era . It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia , Baltica, Siberia , Kazakhstania, and the North China Craton and East China Craton craton...
 to the north, and Gondwana
Gondwana

Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent and then as a remnant separated from Laurasia 180- during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Annum ago into two large segments. to the south.






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The Late Jurassic (or Malm) Epoch of the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 Period is the unit of geologic time
Geologic time scale

File:Geologic clock.jpgThe geologic time scale is a chronology schema relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologys and other earth sciences scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth....
 from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago, which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata
Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes it from contiguous layers....
.

Subdivisions

The Late Jurassic is divided into three ages, which correspond with the three (faunal) stages of Upper Jurassic rock:

  Tithonian
Tithonian

The Tithonian is the final faunal stage of the Late Jurassic epoch . It spans the time between 150.8 ? 4 annum and 145.5 ? 4 Ma . It is followed by the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch ....
 (150.8 ± 4.0 – 145.5 ± 4.0 Ma)
  Kimmeridgian
Kimmeridgian

The Kimmeridgian is a faunal stage of the Late Jurassic epoch . It spans the time between 155.7 ? 4 annum and 150.8 ? 4 Ma . The Kimmeridgian stage follows the Oxfordian stage and precedes the Tithonian stage....
 (155.7 ± 4.0 – 150.8 ± 4.0 Ma)
  Oxfordian
Oxfordian stage

The Oxfordian stage is the first faunal stage of the Late Jurassic epoch . It spans the time between 161.2 ? 4 annum and 155.7 ? 4 Ma .The stage takes its name from the city of Oxford in England....
 (161.2 ± 4.0 – 155.7 ± 4.0 Ma)


Paleogeography

Pangaea
Pangaea

Pangaea, Pang?a or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
 broke up into two supercontinent
Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and terrane that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today....
s, Laurasia
Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era . It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia , Baltica, Siberia , Kazakhstania, and the North China Craton and East China Craton craton...
 to the north, and Gondwana
Gondwana

Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent and then as a remnant separated from Laurasia 180- during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Annum ago into two large segments. to the south. The result of this break-up was the spawning of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
. However, at this time, the Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow.

Life

This period was well known for many famous types of dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s, such as the sauropods, the theropods, the thyreophora
Thyreophora

The Thyreophora were a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs. They were Armour herbivorous dinosaurs, living from the early Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous....
ns, and the ornithopod
Ornithopod

Ornithopods are a group of ornithischia dinosaurs that started out as small, bipedal cursorial grazers, and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world, and dominated the North American landscape....
s. Other animals, such as crocodiles and the first birds, appeared in the Jurassic. Here are only a few of the many Jurassic animals:

    • Camarasaurus
      Camarasaurus

      Camarasaurus meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the holes in its vertebrae was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivore dinosaurs. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America but only average in size: about 18 meters in length as adults, and weighing up to 18 metric ton ....
       a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from North America.
    • Brachiosaurus
      Brachiosaurus

      Brachiosaurus , meaning "arm lizard", from the Ancient Greek brachion/??a???? meaning "arm" and sauros/sa???? meaning "lizard", was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period and possibly the Early Cretaceous Period ....
       a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from North America.
    • Diplodocus
      Diplodocus

      Diplodocus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by Samuel Wendell Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Ancient Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron located in the underside of the tail....
       a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from North America.
    • Supersaurus
      Supersaurus

      Supersaurus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur discovered in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado in 1972. It is among the Dinosaur size known from good remains, possibly reaching 33 to 34 metre in length, and a weight of 35 to 40 tons....
       possibly the largest North American sauropod of them all.
    • Dicraeosaurus
      Dicraeosaurus

      Dicraeosaurus is a genus of small diplodocoid. It was named for the spines on the back of the neck. The first fossil was described by paleontologist Werner Janensch in 1914....
       a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from Africa.
    • Giraffititan another large sauropod from Africa (usually recognized as a species of Brachiosaurus).
    • Allosaurus
      Allosaurus

      Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago, in the late Jurassic Period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard" and is derived from the Ancient Greek a????/allos and sa????/sauros ....
       the most common late Jurassic theropod of North America, also present in Europe.
    • Epanterias
      Epanterias

      Epanterias is a genus of Theropoda dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado. It was described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1878....
       one of the largest Jurassic carnivores, from North America (possibly just Allosaurus).
    • Torvosaurus
      Torvosaurus

      Torvosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived during the Tithonian Stage of the Late Jurassic Period . The name Torvosaurus means "savage lizard" and is derived from the Latin torvus and the Ancient Greek sa????/sauros ....
       possibly the largest Jurassic carnivore of all, from North America and Europe.
    • Ceratosaurus
      Ceratosaurus

      Ceratosaurus meaning 'horned lizard', in reference to the horn on its nose , was a large predatory dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , found in the Morrison Formation of North America, in Tanzania and Portugal....
       a medium sized Jurassic carnivore of North America, Europe, and possibly Africa.
    • Compsognathus
      Compsognathus

      Compsognathus was a small, bipedalism, carnivore theropoda dinosaur. The animal was the size of a turkey and lived around 150 mya , the early Tithonian faunal stage of the late Jurassic Period , in what is now Europe....
       a small theropod from Europe.
    • Yangchuanosaurus
      Yangchuanosaurus

      Yangchuanosaurus was a theropod dinosaur that lived in People's Republic of China during the Late Jurassic, and was similar in size and appearance to its North American contemporary, Allosaurus....
       a large theropod from Asia.
    • Tuojiangosaurus
      Tuojiangosaurus

      Tuojiangosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , recovered from the Upper Shaximiao Formation of what is now Sichuan Province in China....
       a thyreophoran from Asia.
    • Stegosaurus
      Stegosaurus

      Stegosaurus is a genus of Stegosauria Thyreophora dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well....
       a thyreophoran from North America and Europe.
    • Dryosaurus
      Dryosaurus

      Dryosaurus meaning 'oak lizard', due to the vague oak shape of its cheek teeth was a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic Period....
       a North American ornithopod.
    • Camptosaurus
      Camptosaurus

      Camptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Period . The name means 'bent lizard', because, when standing on all fours, its body must have been arched ....
       an ornithopod from North America and possibly Europe.
    • Gargoyleosaurus
      Gargoyleosaurus

      Gargoyleosaurus is both the smallest and the earliest well-known ankylosaur. Its skull measures only in length, and its total body length is an estimated ....
       a thyreophoran from North America.
    • Archaeopteryx
      Archaeopteryx

      Archaeopteryx, sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is the earliest and most primitive bird known. The name is from the Ancient Greek archaios meaning 'ancient' and pteryx meaning 'feather' or 'wing'; ....
       the first known bird, from Europe.
    • Rhamphorhynchus a long-tailed pterosaur
      Pterosaur

      Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or Order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight....
       from Europe.
    • Pterodactylus
      Pterodactylus

      Pterodactylus is a genus of pterosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was a carnivore and probably preyed upon fish and other small animals....
       a short-tailed pterosaur
      Pterosaur

      Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or Order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight....
       from Europe.
    • Ophthalmosaurus
      Ophthalmosaurus

      Ophthalmosaurus was an ichthyosaur of the Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic period , named for its extremely large eyes. It had a graceful 6 meter long dolphin-shaped body, and its almost toothless jaw was well adapted for catching squid....
       a very common sea-going ichthyosaur
      Ichthyosaur

      Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. Ichthyosaurs thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 245 million years ago and disappeared about 90 million years ago, about 25 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct....
       from what is now Europe and North America.
    • Liopleurodon
      Liopleurodon

      'Liopleurodon' is a genus of large, Carnivore marine reptile belonging to the Pliosauroidea, a clade of short-necked plesiosaurs. Two species of Liopleurodon lived during the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic Period , while the third, L....
       a very large sea-going pliosaur
      Pliosaur

      The Pliosaurs were Marine reptiles from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Period . They originally included members of the family Pliosauridae, of the Order Plesiosauria, but several other genera and families are now also included; the number and details of which vary according to the classification used....
       from what is now Europe.