Turgai Strait
Template:Short description Template:Redirect-distinguish-text The Turgai Strait, also known as the Turgay/Turgai Sea, Obik Sea, Ural Sea[1] or West Siberian Sea, was a large shallow body of salt water (an epicontinental or epeiric sea) during the Mesozoic through Cenozoic Eras. It extended north of the present-day Caspian Sea to the "paleo-Arctic" region, and was in existence from the Middle Jurassic to Oligocene, approximately 160 to 29 million years ago.[2]
The Turgai Strait was not absolutely continuous throughout this entire era, though it was a persistent and predominating feature in its region; it "fragmented southern Europe and southwestern Asia into many large islands, and separated Europe from Asia."[3]
The division of the Eurasian landmass by the Turgai Sea had the effect of isolating terrestrial animal populations.[4] Notably, the isolation of Europe by the Turgai Sea led to it developing its own unique fauna via a mixture of Europe-endemic and African-originating lineages. Following the Turgai Strait's disappearance and the extinction of much of Europe's original fauna during the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, Asian-originating lineages such as water frogs managed to successfully migrate to and colonize Europe, leading to Europe's modern assemblage of taxa with primarily Asian origins.[5]
The Turgai Strait derives its name from the Turgay Basin of modern-day Kazakhstan, where a stretch of the Turgai River flows.[6]
See also
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References
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- ↑ Briggs, John C. Global Biogeography. Amsterdam, Elsevier Science, 1995; pp. 71, 76, 84, 88, and ff.
- ↑ Duellman, William Edward. Biology of Amphibians. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; p. 480.
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- ↑ Tectonic units and division of the South Turgay Basin.