Now there were several smaller continents and they were surrounded with oceans. So it was easier for moisture to reach the land and it rained more and a wider range of plants grew, dominated by dense forests of conifer trees and open plains with fern trees. As there was more food for plant-eating dinosaurs, they increased in number. This, in turn, gave more food for hunting dinosaurs so they increased in numbers, too.
It was during the Jurassic that some dinosaurs grew into giants. One of the most common was a gentle monster called Diplodocus. It is a member of the sauropods. Other giant sauropods living at the time were Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus. The main hunters of the age were Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus (picture ).
The Jurassic truly was the age of the dinosaurs. Of course, individual species did not survive the whole of the time, and some went extinct, while new species evolved. For example, Stegosaurus went extinct at the end of the Jurassic (picture ).
At the same time, the reptiles in the oceans became ever more common. They included ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and crocodiles.