RE: Paleogeography

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Andrew McDonald
> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 9:37 PM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Paleogeography
>
>
> Hello,
>
>     I read "Walking With Dinosaurs" in its entirety for the first time
> today, and I did not recognize several place names, such as Eromanga Sea,
> Borborema, and Mogollon Highlands.  The bibliography lists the "Atlas of
> Mesozoic and Cenozoic Coastlines" as a source.  Are all these geographic
> names found in this work?

No.  The Atlas shows coastlines, but does not label fine-scale geographic
features.

>  If not, is there an authoritative source for
> paleogeographic localities and names?

No, there isn't.  There is simply WAY too much paleogeography out there!!
(Imagine a really complete atlas of the world, and then having that same
volume for every 1 million  year slice...).

But, for these particular ones:
* The Eromanga Sea would have been the epeiric (shallow continental) sea
that occupied the present Eromanga Basin in southern Australia
* Borborema is in present Brazil
* the Mogollon Highlands are in the southwestern U.S.  (Heck, they are even
labelled in the book!).

Incidentally, for people interested in regional (rather than globabl)
paleogeography, I can recommend no better site than:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/globaltext.html (Dr. Ron Blakey's site at
Northern Arizona Univ.)
In particular, if you are interested in the American Southwest, check out:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/paleogeogwus.html (this even includes multiple
interepretations of the same time slices).

> Thanks very much.

Hope this helps,

                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