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| Late Jurassic | |
|---|---|
| Name | Late Jurassic |
| Time start | 163.5 |
| Time end | 145 |
| Unit | epoch |
| Color | #a0d0ff |
Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic was an epoch of the Mesozoic Era characterized by high biodiversity, extensive shallow seas, and active plate motions that reconfigured continents and ocean basins. Important developments in dinosaur evolution, marine reptiles, and gymnosperm-dominated floras occurred alongside major volcanic and tectonic episodes that influenced global climate and sea level. Research on the epoch draws on stratigraphy, paleontology, geochemistry, and plate reconstructions produced by teams from institutions such as the United States Geological Survey, British Geological Survey, and universities worldwide.
The epoch is divided into three ages: the Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, and Tithonian, each defined by ammonite biozones and radiometric calibration from sites worked by researchers at the Geological Society of London and laboratories using U-Pb dating and Ar-Ar dating techniques. Stratigraphic frameworks rely on regional chronostratigraphic charts from the International Commission on Stratigraphy and correlate type sections from the Solnhofen Limestone, the Kimmeridge Clay Formation, and the Vaca Muerta-equivalent strata. Lithostratigraphic successions include carbonate platforms, siliciclastic shelves, and widespread organic-rich shales studied by teams at the Ocean Drilling Program and International Ocean Discovery Program.
Paleoclimate reconstructions combine proxy records from foraminifera and isotopic work by groups at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and the Alfred Wegener Institute, indicating warm greenhouse conditions with elevated atmospheric CO2 estimated using paleobotanical and stomatal index methods developed at the Natural History Museum, London and Smithsonian Institution. Sea-level curves compiled by the United States Geological Survey and the European Geosciences Union show major transgressions producing epicontinental seas such as the Western Interior Seaway precursor environments and regressions linked to tectonic uplift associated with the Sevier orogeny and volcanic loading from large igneous provinces recognized by the Geological Society of America.
Plate reconstructions from groups using GPlates and models by the Paleomap Project, University of Texas at Arlington, and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris depict widespread rifting between the future North America, Eurasia, Africa, and Gondwana fragments. Continental fragmentation opened proto-Atlantic and neo-Tethys gateways, influencing faunal exchanges between regions like the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco and controlling ocean circulation patterns studied by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. Rift basins such as the Paris Basin analogues hosted sedimentary archives that preserve vertebrate and invertebrate assemblages curated by institutions including the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
Floral assemblages were dominated by gymnosperms—conifers from families recognized by specialists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew—and widespread ferns, cycads, and Bennettitales documented in collections at the Field Museum and Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Major vertebrate groups include diverse saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs studied in formations like the Morrison Formation and Tendaguru Beds by teams from the University of Cambridge and the University of Tübingen, giant sauropods such as genera described in monographs associated with the American Museum of Natural History, and theropods represented in collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Marine faunas comprised ammonites, belemnites, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs cataloged by curators at the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Avialan and pterosaur diversity, including specimens studied at the Zoological Society of London, signal important steps toward avian evolution.
Exceptional fossil preservation is known from Lagerstätten such as the Solnhofen Limestone—home to iconic specimens curated by the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie—the Lourinhã Formation exposures studied by Portuguese teams, the Tendaguru Beds excavated historically by expeditions linked to the Museum für Naturkunde, and the Morrison Formation localities managed by collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution. Other notable sites include the Kimmeridge Clay Formation, the Shishan-1 locality investigated by Chinese institutions, and Moroccan phosphate basins yielding diverse marine and terrestrial fossils examined by researchers from the Université Mohammed V.
Rifting events tied to the breakup of Pangaea and the emplacement of volcanic provinces influenced carbon cycling and ocean chemistry; studies by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program and the Global Volcanism Program link pulses of magmatism to changes in marine anoxia recorded in black shales. Subduction dynamics along the Tethys Ocean margins and arc volcanism in regions later forming the Andes are documented in tectonostratigraphic analyses by the American Geophysical Union. Oceanic anoxic events, basin restriction in epicontinental seas, and siliciclastic influx from orogenic belts controlled sedimentation patterns recognized in cores held by the British Geological Survey.
Evolutionary trends include the radiation of neosauropods and diversification of maniraptoran theropods described in phylogenetic studies from the University of Chicago and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, while marine reptiles underwent turnovers documented in monographs from the Natural History Museum, London. Biotic crises appear patchy and regionally variable; analyses integrating data from the Paleobiology Database, the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics, and specialist societies indicate selective extinctions and faunal replacements rather than a single global mass extinction during the epoch. Long-term patterns set the stage for the end-Mesozoic transitions explored by researchers affiliated with the Royal Society and leading paleontological journals.