RE: Map

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Daniel Bensen
>
> Hey everyone.  I've been looking for good maps of
> Mid-Late-K Asia and I made one of my own based off
> the Czerkas's book,

EEEK!!

> but I have no idea of how
> accurate it is.
>
> Here is the picture:
> http://www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/pic.jpg
>
> What's the concensus?

Paleogeographic reconstruction is a science, and as such it presents
hypotheses subject to falsifiability.  One of the biggest changes in
paleogeography recently is the recognition that the crust is made of many
dozens of plates of various sizes, not just a dozen or so big ones.

Hence, modern paleogeographic reconstructions are often not that similar to
older ones.

Just about the best site for modern reconstructions is that of Northern
Arizona Univ.'s Ron Blakey.  See:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/globaltext.html

For rectangular of various time slices, see:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/rect_globe.html

And for globes of the Mesozoic, try the following:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/240_Triassic_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/220_Triassic_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/200_Jurassic_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/170_Jurassic_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/150_Jurassic_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/120_Cretaceous_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/105_Cretaceous_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/090_Cretaceous_sm.jpg
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/065_K_Tboundary_sm.jpg

> Also, could someone (Jaime?) shed some light on the
> climates and probable mountain formations of this
> time and place?  I hear now that Nemegt was
> swampy...that would be what, the upper-middle bit of
> my map's "Asia"?

The Nemegt was swampy, but it was a delta emptying into a desert!  (Again,
the Okavango of Africa is a good modern analog).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796