For the sixth edition of its “En route to enlightenment” festival, the National Museum of Natural History invites you to put yourself in the shoes of real paleontologists, to discover the biodiversity of the Jurassic. An extraordinary journey through time of 200 million years (MA) will take you from the great depths of the ocean to marshy environments via green valleys… to the heart of the Age of Reptiles.
During the Jurassic (from -201 to -145 AD), “Pangea” (this super continent which brought together almost all of the land surface) no longer existed: the continents continued their separation and their distance. While most marine organisms took advantage of the opening of sea lanes to disperse across the planet, pterosaurs began to dominate the world. The first birds appear, mammals and plants experience strong diversification.
“Jurassic in the process of illumination” gives an overview of this richness through an immersive journey, featuring characteristic, spectacular or strange species: marine reptiles, life-size terrestrial and flying dinosaurs and first mammals of which we find numerous specimens fossilized in the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy of the Jardin des Plantes. Indeed, paleontology is a discipline for which the Museum is an international reference, both for the richness of its collections (more than 10 million specimens) and for the teams at its research center (CR2P).
A fantastic epic to discover 5 Jurassic environments
In the Big Blue
Here are the visitors propelled to the Lower Jurassic (-201 to -175 AD): exploration begins in the open sea, at around 300 meters depth. At this time, we did not yet encounter whales or dolphins, but impressive marine reptiles. Plesiosaurs with long, graceful necks and ichthyosaurs built for speed swim alongside distant cousins of crocodiles. This world is also that of ammonites and belemnites, abundant in the Jurassic seas, as well as numerous species of fish and crustaceans. Microorganisms with astonishing shapes, radiolarians, evolve with the currents. Some animals may seem familiar, but appearances are sometimes deceiving!
Twenty thousand leagues under the sea
The journey continues in the Middle Jurassic (-175 to -161 MA) in the abyssal depths of the ocean, where pressure, cold and darkness are omnipresent. However, this environment is not devoid of life, and there are animals adapted to extreme conditions. Some, such as squid or jellyfish, produce their own light by bioluminescence and others gather around black smokers, hydrothermal vents from which a fluid of up to 400°C escapes.
The mysterious island
Let's go back to the surface: here we are now in a lagoon from the Upper Jurassic, 150 million years ago. It is part of an archipelago worthy of the Bahamas which extended to the location of our current Europe. In the shallow water, a teeming world evolves: corals, rudists, octopuses, sea urchins, crustaceans, fish… On dry land, we encounter dinosaurs, which diversified greatly during the Jurassic. Looking up, we also see the pterosaurs which then dominate the sky but are already competing with flying feathered dinosaurs, such as the Archeopteryx – whose descendants are still present among us: the birds!
The Valley of Wonders
The exploration continues inland, in a wooded valley crossed by a river. Unfortunately for Jurassic Park fans, one myth is busted: T. rex and triceratops didn't yet exist in the Late Jurassic, even though the dinosaurs from that era were just as impressive. Let us also forget the vision of flowery meadows with tender grass, because there were neither flowers nor grass! The diversity of the flora is nevertheless remarkable: there are numerous ferns, cycads and horsetails, while ginkgoes and conifers form the canopy.
The Swamp Dwellers
The journey ends around -140 MA: the Jurassic gives way to the Cretaceous. The fragmentation of the continents leads to the appearance of the South Atlantic, which begins to separate South America from Africa. This final stage takes visitors to the heart of a swamp of the future France, where biodiversity flourishes which today seems rather exotic. In dense and humid forests, we come across crocodiles, turtles, fish and various amphibians, as well as small and medium-sized mammals. Large herds of ornithomimosaurs, nicknamed “ostrich dinosaurs”, slalom between turiasaurs, giant dinosaurs cousins of diplodocus which could reach 30 meters and exceed 40 tonnes. It is in the presence of one of them, represented in real size, that this fabulous expedition to the heart of the Jurassic comes to an end.
Practical information
Jurassic in the process of enlightenment
Paris Plant Garden
From Wednesday November 20, 2024 to Sunday January 19, 2025
ACCESS : Place Valhubert, 75005 Paris / Exit (new): 2 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris
SCHEDULES
Outside school holidays: open Wednesday to Sunday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (last entry 9 p.m.)
School holidays (from December 21, 2024 to January 5, 2025): open every evening from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (including December 25, December 31 and January 1)
Exceptional closure on December 24
PRICES : Online ticketing from October 15, 2024 on illumination-billetterie.mnhn.fr (reservation required)
Full price: €18 / Reduced price: €15
Tribe package 2 adults & 2 children under 13: €60
Free for children under 3 years old
Information and reservations on jardindesplantesdeparis.fr
