The Silent Evolution

What makes the Jurassic Period distinct? Dinosaurs might be your first answer, yet the wonders of the Jurassic world extend far beyond these famous giants. Plants and early pollinators played a crucial role in the dinosaurs’ ecosystem, laying the foundation for their modern-day descendants.

Keep scrolling and step back in time!

Jurassic Period

The scientific community categorizes the earth’s life span by geochronologic time units. Ten eras are recognized with each era containing periods, defined as shorter time spans within an era that are marked by significant evolutionary events.

Dinosaurs roamed during the Mesozoic era (252 million to 66 million years ago) across three periods: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Let’s break down each period by their unique characteristics.

Triassic (252-201 million years ago)

• Land animals included reptiles and marine reptiles, dinosaurs, lizards, and tortoises. Crocodiles were especially abundant.
• Insects included beetles, moss bugs, and flies.
• Plants included conifers, cycads, and ferns.
• Significant Event: Rise of the first dinosaurs and marine reptiles, setting the evolutionary stage for the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods.

Jurassic (201-145 million years ago)

• Land animals included even larger and more diverse dinosaurs, flying reptiles, birds, small mammals, and abundance of marine life.
• Insects included early pollinators, lacewings, dragonflies, cockroaches, and ants.
• Plants included conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes. In fact, the Jurassic Period is also known as the “Age of the Cycads” due to their abundance and diversity, which increased significantly after the Triassic Period.
• Significant Event: Emergence of very early pollinators, signaling plant evolution from spore reproduction to pollinator reproduction.

Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago)

• Land animals included new species of dinosaurs and reptiles, while birds and mammals continued diversifying and expanding.
• Insects included ants, termites, bees, butterflies, aphids, and grasshoppers.
• Plants included magnolias and redwoods alongside cycads, ginkgoes, and ferns.
• Significant Event: Early flowering plants began emerging and diversifying alongside their pollinators.

Despite their diminutive stature, plants dominated the prehistoric landscape. Their resiliency led to further evolution and the rise of pollinators.

Jurassic Pollinators

Early pollinators, known as Glossata (a moth suborder), emerged during the Jurassic Period. However, due to the lack of flowering plants, which would emerge as their main food source during the Cretaceous Period, Glossata were not widespread and differed greatly from the pollinators we know today.

Instead of flowering plants, these pollinators relied on pollen droplets from conifers and seed plants. Conifers were abundant during the Jurassic Period, thereby providing a rich source of both water and food.

In the late Jurassic Period into the Cretaceous Period, both the Glossata and plants co-evolved, resulting in the emergence of flowers and nectar as their main food source while transferring pollen.

Modern Day Descendants

The Glossata would eventually give rise to Lepidoptera, the modern moth and butterfly classification. But did the Glossata look anything like current pollinators and do they have any living descendants today?

Yes! Early pollinators share one crucial feature with modern-day moths and butterflies—a proboscis. This unique characteristic is an elongated, tubular mouthpiece responsible for extracting liquid such as water and food.

However, this is not the only physical characteristic the Glossata share with their Lepidoptera descendants. For example, the Jurassic Period Kalligrammatid lacewing resembles the modern-day owl butterfly.

The owl butterfly is known for its distinct wing eyespots, giving it its eponymous classification. This unique feature is also shared by the Kalligrammatid lacewing. While this Glossata resembles a modern butterfly species, they are actually closely related to snakeflies and mayflies.

While Kalligrammatid lacewings are extinct, you can see plenty of examples of their modern-day lookalikes at Powell Gardens’ Festival of Butterflies. While exploring the wonders of today’s pollinators, take note of the prehistoric giants and plants that once shared their world.