Jurassic

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æsɪk

Origin

Named for the discovery and type location in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland.

Adjective

1. (geology) Of or pertaining to the second period of the Mesozoic era, a time still dominated by dinosaurs.
• 1990, Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park, Alfred A. Knopf, p 94:His father squinted at the skeleton. “What is it, Jurassic?” “Jeez. No. Cretaceous.” “Cretaceous? What's the difference between Cretaceous and Jurassic?” “Only about a hundred million years,” Tim said. “Cretaceous is older?” “No, Dad, Jurassic is older.”
2. Of or pertaining to the people or region near the Jura Mountain Range of Europe.
• 1910, Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchism”, in Encyclopædia Britannica.The Jurassic, the Spanish and the Italian federations and sections of the International Working Men's Association, as also the French, the German and the American anarchist groups, were for the next years the chief centres of anarchist thought and propaganda.

Proper noun

1. The period from 200 to 146 million years ago, after the Triassic and before the Cretaceous; the geologic formations 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 ...