Large shallow body of salt water of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras
"Ural Sea" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Ural Ocean.
The Turgai Strait, also known as the Turgay/TurgaiSea, 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 CenozoicEras. 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]
^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.
^Duellman, William E. (1986). Biology of Amphibians. JHU Press. p. 479. ISBN9780801847806. Otherwise, most, if not all, continental masses were united into a single land mass — Pangaea. ... (M) Leiopelmatidae (L) Discoglossidae (U) Palaeobatrachidae (U) Cretaceous, 135 m.y. Turgai Sea separated east and west Eurasia
