The Jurassic is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period 201.4 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 145 Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era and is named after the Jura Mountains, where limestone strata from the period were first identified.
Araucariaceae – also known as Araucarians – is a family of coniferous trees, with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family was a common component of the flora globally during the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, in their native distribution they are now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Malesia.
Wollemia is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae, endemic to Australia. It represents only one of three living genera in the family, alongside Araucaria and Agathis. The genus only has a single known species, Wollemia nobilis, which was discovered in 1994 in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales. It was growing in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided, sandstone gorges 150 km (93 mi) north-west of Sydney. The genus is named after the National Park.
Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic, Cretaceous they were dominant conifers. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside Wollemia and Araucaria. Agathis was a important genus in early cenozoic gondwana. Its leaves are much broader than most conifers. Kauri gum is commercially harvested from New Zealand kauri.
Araucaria bidwillii, commonly known as the bunya pine, banya or bunya-bunya, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae which is endemic to Australia. Its natural range is southeast Queensland with two very small, disjunct populations in northeast Queensland's World Heritage listed Wet Tropics. There are many planted specimens on the Atherton Tableland, in New South Wales, and around the Perth metropolitan area, and it has also been widely planted in other parts of the world. They are very tall trees – the tallest living individual is in Bunya Mountains National Park and was reported by Robert Van Pelt in January 2003 to be 51.5 m (169 ft) in height.
Araucarioxylon arizonicum is an extinct species of conifer that is the state fossil of Arizona. The species is known from massive tree trunks that weather out of the Chinle Formation in desert badlands of northern Arizona and adjacent New Mexico, most notably in the 378.51 square kilometres Petrified Forest National Park. There, these trunks are locally so abundant that they have been used as building materials.
Williamsonia is a genus of plant belonging to Bennettitales, an extinct order of seed plants. Within the form classification system used in paleobotany, Williamsonia is used to refer to female seed cones, which are associated with plants that also bore the male flower-like reproductive structure Weltrichia.
Cheirolepidiaceae is an extinct family of conifers. They first appeared in the Triassic, and were a diverse and common group of conifers during most of the Mesozoic era, primarily at low latitudes, where they often formed a dominant element of the vegetation. They are united by the possession of a distinctive pollen type assigned to the form genus Classopollis The name Frenelopsidaceae or "frenelopsids" has been used for a group of Cheirolepidiaceae with jointed stems, thick internode cuticles, sheathing leaf bases and reduced free leaf tips. The leaf morphology has been noted as being similar to that of halophyte Salicornia. Several members of the family appear to have been adapted for semi-arid and coastal settings, with a high tolerance of saline conditions. Cheirolepidiaceae disappeared from most regions of the world during the Cenomanian-Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous, but reappeared in South America during the Maastrichtian, the final stage of the Cretaceous, increasing in abundance after the K-Pg extinction and being a prominent part of the regional flora during the Paleocene, before going extinct. Survival into the Paleocene in North America and China has also been suggested based on pollen.
Araucaria mirabilis is an extinct species of coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. It belongs to the genus Araucaria.
La Matilde Formation is a Jurassic geological formation in the Austral Basin of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It is dated to the Middle to Late Jurassic. From the Bathonian age to the Kimmeridgian age at the latest.
Mary Gordon Calder was a Scottish paleobotanist. She is known for her work on Carboniferous fossil plants and Jurassic conifers.
Agathoxylon is a form genus of fossil wood, including massive tree trunks. Although identified from the late Palaeozoic to the end of the Mesozoic, Agathoxylon is common from the Carboniferous to Triassic. Agathoxylon represents the wood of multiple conifer groups, including both Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae, with late Paleozoic and Triassic forms possibly representing other conifers or other seed plant groups like "pteridosperms".
Brachyphyllum is a form genus of fossil coniferous plant foliage. Plants of the genus have been variously assigned to several different conifer groups including Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae. They are known from around the globe from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Cretaceous periods. B. sattlerae was named after the fictional palaebotanist Ellie Sattler from the Jurassic Park franchise.
The Jaramillo Petrified Forest National Park is a protected area of petrified forest located in the Deseado Department, in the northeast of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Formerly part of the site was a natural monument, established in 1954 and known as the Petrified Forest Natural Monument, covering about 13,700 hectares. This area has remnants of a forest preserved in stone, that had been growing on the site before the upthrust of the Andes some 150 million years ago. In December 2012, further land was added and the protected area was reclassified as a national park with a total area of 78,543 hectares.
The Cañadón Asfalto Basin is an irregularly shaped sedimentary basin located in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. The basin stretches from and partly covers the North Patagonian Massif in the north, a high forming the boundary of the basin with the Neuquén Basin in the northwest, to the Cotricó High in the south, separating the basin from the Golfo San Jorge Basin. It is located in the southern part of Río Negro Province and northern part of Chubut Province. The eastern boundary of the basin is the North Patagonian Massif separating it from the offshore Valdés Basin and it is bound in the west by the Patagonian Andes, separating it from the small Ñirihuau Basin.
"Agathis" jurassica is an extinct coniferous tree found in the Talbragar Fish Beds of New South Wales. The beds were discovered in 1889 near the Farrs Hills in the Talbragar River valley. Specimens from the area were briefly examined by Australian palaeontologists upon discovery and published by R. Etheridge Jr. later that year. The initial classification identified Agathis jurassica as Podozamites lanceolatus. This name was upheld through further inspections by Walkom in 1921, but the species was reclassified as Agathis jurassica in 1981 by Mary White. In 1999, placement in Agathis was doubted, and the species has been referred to as Podozamites jurassica. The species is found predominantly in the Southern Hemisphere with marginal expanses into the Northern Hemisphere.
Araucarites is an extinct genus of conifer, used to refer to female conifer cones that resemble those of the family Araucariaceae. Species assigned to the genus lived in the Permian to Eocene and have been found worldwide.
Pararaucaria is a genus of conifer cone belonging to the extinct family Cheirolepidiaceae. Fossils are known from the Lower Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North America, Europe, South America and Asia. It is associated with Brachyphyllum-type foliage.
The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is a geological formation which dates to the Toarcian age of the Early Jurassic period of Argentina. The rocks of the formation preserve a diverse biota, including plants, dinosaurs, invertebrates, mammals and pterosaurs, among others. The formation is divided into two members: the lower Las Chacritas Member, and the overlying Puesto Almada member, though the latter has also been assigned to the overlying Cañadón Calcáreo Formation by some authors. The members are typically composed of fluvial-lacustrine deposits consisting of sandstones and shales, with a limestone carbonate evaporitic sequence also being present in the lower of the two.
