Etymology

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

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to the second period of the Mesozoic era, a time still dominated by dinosaurs. Usage example: A collection of Jurassic fossils.
2. Of our pertaining to the the people or region near the Jura Mountain Range of Europe. Usage example: "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." --Peter Kropotkin, "Anarchism," Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910.

Proper noun

1. The Jurassic Period began 150 million years ago, and lasted for 40 million years. Preceded by the Triassic Period and followed by the Cretaceous Period. The most famous fossil of the Jurassic Period is Archaeopteryx.