The sedimentary successions of several basins of Europe show evidence of widespread Late Jurassic aridification that is considered a long-standing conundrum in paleoclimate modeling. The distinctive feature of this event is that it appears concentrated in a discrete time interval between the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) and the Berriasian (Early Cretaceous), and that it extended to eastern and southern-central Asia for a total of ~10Mkm2 in roughly the same time interval. Climate modeling has not provided a convincing explanation for this event. We compiled and reviewed paleomagnetic data from several continents including Adria, the African promontory, showing that this large-scale aridification was produced by an abrupt and transient southward migration of Eurasia towards arid tropical latitudes, while its demise coincided with a ‘retromotion’ to more humid northern latitudes in the Early Cretaceous. This movement is part of a global plate motion event, most likely due to True Polar Wander, that profoundly affected the depositional environments, the ecosystems, and the architecture of sedimentary basins worldwide.