The Jurassic period saw changes in the earth climatic condition, the climate became warm and humid. The seas flooded much of the land. Rich carpets of mosses and ferns covered the ground. Taller horse tail and tree-ferns formed thick forest.

In these condition, giant creatures began evolved faster than ever. Gigantic dinosaurs becomes a common feature in that period. The Shunosaurus, a herbivores measuring 10 metre long, was one of the earliest member of the massive plant eater family, the Sauropods. The Sauropods live about 190 million years ago in the early Jurassic Period. Paleontologist discovered large collections of dinosaur skeletons in the Sichuan Province, China and Sauropods makes the bulk of discoveries.

Another of the early large dinosaurs was the Dilophosaurus. This flesh eating dinosaur was about the size of an elephant. It feeds on carrion (dead animals). Not all dinosaurs evolved to become giants, some evolved to become faster dinosaurs and others becomes better hunters. The Heterodontosaurus, Emausaurus and Lesothosaurus was probably the fastest moving dinosaurs equivalent to the gazelles of the great African Plains, that allows them to outrun their predators.

Early sea reptiles such as the dolphin-liked animal Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs and Mosasaurs inhabits the ocean of the great Jurassic period. The earth climate turned milder during the middle of the Jurassic period. There were plenty of rain which brought lush vegetation. Plants grew bigger and taller creating a greener landscape in the Jurassic world. The bio-diversity enabled the great habitat to sustain variety of plant eating dinosaurs. One of these are the Sceilodosaurus which had heavy armour and strong legs to protects themselve from any predators. Some scientists also believed that this dinosaur can move on its hind legs (two legged).

Stegosaurs (species with plates or pointed spikes on their body) was also believed to be the inhabitant of the Jurassic period. The Lexovisaurus, a 5 metre long dinosaur, had narrow plates on its back and spines on its tail. Scientist are still debating on the exact used of these plates. The spines in the tail acts as a weapon when attacked. Other early stegosaurs includes the Dacentrusus and the Huayangosaurus.

The giant sauropod dominated the Jurassic period. Cetiosaurus, Rhoetosaurus and Vulcanodon were so huge that they do not have any predator. The gentle giant such as Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus and Diplodocus are among the habitant of Jurassic period. The largest complete dinosaur skeleton found by scientists belonged to the Brachiosaurus. It grew to a length of 22 metre and stood 20 metre high. The gigantic sauropods shared their habitat with some fearsome predators.

One of the most successful hunter at that time was the Allosaurus. It measured 12 metre long and 4 metre high. This predator remains was found in North America was dated to the late Jurassic period. It was as tall as a fully grown giraffe. A lethal killer and probably hunted in packs, was one of the most terrifying beast that lived in late Jurassic. There are two species of Allosaurus; the north America Allosaurus (firstly discovered in North America) and Australian Allosaurus (later discovery in Australia). Both of the species had curved claws and powerful jaws with backward pointed teeth to rip out mouthful of flesh. But the Australian species (only 3 metre long) was much smaller than their North American cousins.

During the late Jurassic period, the climate in some part of the earth (Europe) gradually change from hot and dry to warm and damp. Winding rivers, shallow lakes marshes and patches of dry land spread across the land mass (now South East England, France Belgium and Germany). Plant grew almost everywhere. Across this lush green landscape wandered herds of huge four legged herbivores sauropods such as Cetiosauriscus, Ornithopsis, Cetiosaurus and Pelorosaurus. All these sauropods had small head (that size only about 1/100 of its total size) with peg-liked teeth and huge barrel-shaped bodies were peaceful giants of the pre-historic world. This enormous plant eaters were not the only dinosaurs that lived in Europe during the late Jurassic period. Europe also had the terrible meat eater dinosaurs. The Megalosaurus or ‘the great reptile’ was one of the famous carnosaurs. It was also the first discovery that lead scientists to officially recognised the existence of creature called dinosaurs. Its fossil were firstly found in Oxfordshire, England in year 160. Initially it was thought to be part of a giant human until 1824, William Buckland described it as ‘TERRIBLE LIZARD’ or ‘DINOSAUR’ in greek. Megalosaurus was a close relative of Allosaurus from north America.

In the Jurassic period, south Africa and north America is thought to be joined. The evidence that some of African dinosaurs can also been found in north America proved this point. Stegosaurus, measure 8 metre long and 4 metre high, a gentle vegetarian can only be found in north America and south Africa.

The first bird appeared during the late Jurassic period, Archaeopteryx. Six skeletons of this bird had been found so far. From the skeleton, we can draw many similarities between this ancient bird and the small therapod dinosaurs but there is a significant difference - Archaeopteryx had feathers! This ancient bird also had claws at the end of its wing. Archaeopteryx used its claws to climb up trees. Archaeopteryx also had a unique beak; its jaws were lined with small and sharp teeth.

The first true frog appeared in the Jurassic Period. Lizard and turtles, however, had evolved earlier. The vegetation during the Jurassic Period was about same as the Triassic plant but seems to have grown bigger. Some of the Jurassic plants can also been seen today like Ginkgo, Redwood trees, Monkey Puzzle Trees and Yew trees. These plants are almost exactly as their prehistoric ancestral. These plants were described by scientists as living fossils.

The Time of The Giants.