For years scientists have
been trying to find the mysterious evolutionary master key responsible
for transforming the dinosaurs into world-beaters. In the early
Jurassic, 200 million years ago, they were a relatively small group of
primitive creatures. By the late Jurassic, 50 million years later, they
had become the magnificent array of carnivores and giant plant eaters
that would dominate the planet for millions of years. In between lies
the mysterious period of the middle Jurassic in which all these changes
must have happened. But what were they? What was it that transformed
the dinosaurs?
Was there some terrible mass extinction? Had there been an amazing
change in the environment? All this was speculation and theory. How and
where would evidence come to light? Fossils from the middle Jurassic
are incredibly rare. All anyone had to go on were a few small outcrops
of rock dotted around the world.
