Jurassic

== English == === Etymology === Borrowed from French Jurassique, named for the discovery and type location in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland. The -assic suffix was extracted from Triassic. === Pronunciation === enPR: jo͝o-răs'ĭk, IPA(key): /d͡ʒʊˈɹæs.ɪk/ Rhymes: -æsɪk === Adjective === Jurassic (not comparable) (geology) Of or pertaining to the second period of the Mesozoic era, a time still dominated by dinosaurs. (by extension, proscribed) Of or pertaining to the Mesozoic era as a whole. Of or pertaining to the people or region near the Jura Mountain Range of Europe. (informal) Very old-fashioned and outdated. ==== Usage notes ==== Scientifically, Jurassic refers to the middle period of the Mesozoic, when creatures like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Brontosaurus lived. This means that many popular dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, despite popularly being described as "Jurassic", are not actually from the period. ==== Translations ==== === Proper noun === Jurassic (geology, paleontology) The period from 201.3±0.2 to 145 million years ago, after the Triassic and before the Cretaceous; the geologic systems of this period. D. M. Kermack, K. A. Kermack, The Evolution of Mammalian Characters: [p 108] Like the Forest Marble Beds in the Middle Jurassic, the Purbeck Beds of the Upper Jurassic are deltaic or estuarine in origin, so as well as mammals they contain small, presumably freshwater, crocodiles and the first indisputable lizards. [p 109] This is less surprising if it is recalled that in the Upper Jurassic, Europe and North America were joined to form Laurasia and the Atlantic Ocean still had to be formed [...] ==== Hypernyms ==== (geological period): Phanerozoic - eon; Mesozoic - era ==== Hyponyms ==== (geological period): Lower Jurassic, Middle Jurassic, Upper Jurassic - epochs; series ==== Coordinate terms ==== (geological period): Triassic (preceding), Cretaceous (succeeding) - periods; systems ==== Translations ==== ==== Further reading ==== Jurassic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia === See also === Appendix:Geologic timescale