Pacific biogeography

[John Grehan]

The following paper suggests the distribution of some Triassic Sauropterygia
is linked to the history of terrane relationships in the northern Pacific,
resulting in the
current fossil distribution represented by Europe, China, and western North
America.
The pattern is spatially homologous with many extant groups that do not have a
Triassic fossil record and for which conventional wisdom holds to be of
much more recent
origin (e.g. angiosperm families). It is possible that the historical
geology of the Pacific
involves a sequential series of formations of different ages and different
taxa sharing a
Pacific homology involve associations with different geological landscapes.
Alternatively,
some of these taxa may be very much older than their earliest fossils. The
papers by
Moores posted earlier gives some indication about the potential geological
complexity
of Pacific basin history.

Rieppel, O. 1999. Phylogeny and paleobiogeography of Triassic Sauropterygia:
problems solved and unresolved. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology
153: 1-15.

If any on this list know of other recent papers
documenting  paleogeological/geographic
histories for Pacific distributions I would be most interested to know.

John Grehan