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Land Plants
Conifers such as Araucarioxylon dominated the land during the Jurassic period. Other land plants included club mosses, horsetails and ferns. Horsetails were often grazed by plant-eating dinosaurs. This plant had underground stems that could regrow, preventing dinosaurs from devastating the horsetail population. The first flowering plants evolved during the late Jurassic period, a major milestone in plant evolution.
Land Animals
Dinosaurs dominated the earth during the Jurassic period. Large plant eaters such as Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus roamed the land. Stegosaurus had two rows of triangular shaped plates on its back. Brachiosaurus had a long neck which it used to graze the tops of tall trees. The primary carnivore during the Jurassic was Allosaurus. It roamed the Americas hunting for prey in what are now the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Ocean Life
The newly formed shallow interior seas and oceans were filled with abundant life. Long-necked plesiosaurs were at the top of the food chain, along with sharks, marine crocodiles and rays. Other creatures included squid-like cephalopods, ichthyosaurs and shelled ammonites. Coral reefs sprang up in warm waters. Sponges and mollusks were plentiful. Microscopic plankton proliferated and were a vital part of the food chain.
Flying Creatures
During the Jurassic, Archaeopteryx began to fly through the skies. It was the earliest known bird, and shared airspace with pterosaurs, flying reptiles that had existed since the Triassic period. Archaeopteryx differed from modern birds in several key ways. It had a full set of teeth, a long bony tail and three claws on the wing. Archaeopteryx had feathers, but it is unknown if these feathers were used for regulating body temperature or for flight. The creature was an evolutionary bridge between flying reptiles and flying birds as they exist today.