Re: Climates in Asia [Mongolia]

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Dan Bensen wrote:

<A while back (I don't remember when), I made some comment about how
Asia became more desert-like during the course of the Cretaceous. Jaime
corrected me, saying that the popular suppositions about the climate in
Asia at that time are wrong. Unfortunately, I forger what he said the
conditions actually _were_. So, from anyone who cares to say, what sort
of climate(s) dominated in Asia during the Cretaceous? I realize that
Asia was probably home to many different climates and I would like to
know where/when they were.>

  http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2000Feb/msg00129.html

  Here it is again. Can't believe it's been that long since I wrote it
... anyway, Nessov and others have done extensive west Asian geology,
Sues and others have been stpping up to the plate and are working on
the biology and stratigraphy of the Uzbek--Kazak region since Nessov's
death. Hopefully this will clear up a lot of stuff. A third or so of
Asia (mostly around the Urals) had been under a shallow sea until into
the Tertiary (Eo-/Oligocene I think) and general climes have been wet
and warm until the Oligo-/Miocene, if I remember my McFadden et al.
studies right on Laurasian horses. But the specific deseritfication and
subsequent wettening of the central Asian region has been discussed by
Gradzinski et al., in _Paleontologica Polonica_ during the
Polish--Mongolian expeditions, and by Jerzykiewicz et al., in _Can. J.
Earth Sci._ during the Sino-Canadian expeditions. Only the Nemegt
hasn't been revised since first described, at least not by much.
Kurzanov (1987) discusses it in his *Avimimus* monograph, but I haven't
translated that part, yet. Most of the recent paleontological
expeditions by the AMNH-MAS into Mongolia has concentrated on Ukhaa
Tolgod and Tugreeg, which are Djadohktan or equivalent. I understand
that The Japanese-Mongolian expeditions are exploring the Nemegt, so
that may help considerably.

=====
Jaime "James" A. Headden

  Dinosaurs are horrible, terrible creatures! Even the
  fluffy ones, the snuggle-up-at-night-with ones. You think
  they're fun and sweet, but watch out for that stray tail
  spike! Down, gaston, down, boy! No, not on top of Momma!

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