The Jurassic World (200-140 million years ago)

Pangaea started to break apart during the Jurassic Period.  The Atlantic Ocean opened to the west of Britain and the Americas drifted away from Europe.  The Earth was relatively warm, sea levels were high and there were hardly any polar ice caps.

The conditions on the Meadow fluctuated from relatively deep seas to coastal swamps.  Sea levels rose and fell in a series of cycles, depositing deep water clays, followed by sandstones and finally shallow water limestones.  Seas were shallower in the Middle Jurassic, creating an environment of islands surrounded by shallow shoals, similar to the Caribbean of today.  Seas then deepened again, and finally shallowed towards the end of the Jurassic, creating the conditions for a forest to flourish in a tropical swamp environment.

Painting of a late Jurassic Scene shows an adult and a juvenile specimen of the sauropod Europasaurus holgeri and iguanodons passing by. There are two Compsognathus in the foreground and an Archaeopteryx at the right.

The expansion of shallow seas encouraged an explosion of life in the Jurassic, and many animals evolved rapidly in order to take advantage of the new habitats available.  Reptiles were the ‘top predators’ on land, sea and in the air.  Dinosaurs walked the Meadow and the dominant carnivores in the seas surrounding it included ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and crocodiles.