All articles tagged with #paleogeography
New isotopic mapping of rocks shows Gondwana formed a massive supercontinent that covered about 80% of Earth's land between 550 and 500 million years ago, a configuration linked to the Cambrian explosion and the rise of complex life, highlighting how deep-Earth processes helped drive major biodiversity upheavals.
Researchers at Utrecht University have built Paleolatitude.org, an online platform that lets you enter any modern location and see its estimated latitude at different times up to 320 million years ago, using refined tectonic reconstructions, magnetic rock data, and dating techniques to map continental movement—and including smaller plates and lost landmasses. The tool supports studies of past climates, fossils, biodiversity, and mass extinctions, with plans to extend back further in time.
A high‑resolution Paleolatitude.org model, built on Utrecht University's Utrecht Paleogeography framework, reconstructs Earth’s positions up to 320 million years ago, linking rocks and fossils to their original plates and latitudes to improve climate, biodiversity, and mass-extinction research.
Paleolatitude.org now features a global 320-million-year paleogeographic model with updated paleomagnetic data, letting users trace any location’s latitude through continental drift, export results, and upload data for bulk paleolatitude calculations. Researchers illustrate its use by reconstructing late Jurassic biodiversity gradients and mapping a Dutch fossil site to ancient latitudes near today’s Arabia, with plans to extend the model back to the Cambrian to study biodiversity resilience through deep time.
A tool called paleolatitude.org, built on the Utrecht Paleogeography Model, lets users input any location to see how its latitude changed over the past 320 million years, aiding paleoclimatology and paleontology by linking rocks to their original plates. It does not show longitude or animate the movement.
Geologists report that two massive, buried mantle anomalies called large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) have modulated Earth's magnetic field for about 265 million years by creating temperature- and density-driven flow differences that alter the outer-core liquid iron; computer simulations show only models including LLSVPs reproduce observed magnetic irregularities, with implications for ancient continental configurations and climate.
New research suggests that Triassic reptiles, ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles, were capable of migrating up to 10,000 miles through inhospitable tropical zones following the end-Permian mass extinction, which may have contributed to their survival and subsequent dominance in Earth's ecosystems.