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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]
- ^ Allaby, Michael (2020). A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences (5 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198839033.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-883903-3.
- ^ 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. ISBN 9780801847806.
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
- ^ Dufresnes, Christophe; Monod-Broca, Benjamin; Bellati, Adriana; Canestrelli, Daniele; Ambu, Johanna; Wielstra, Ben; Dubey, Sylvain; Crochet, Pierre-André; Denoël, Mathieu; Jablonski, Daniel (2024). "Piecing the barcoding puzzle of Palearctic water frogs (Pelophylax) sheds light on amphibian biogeography and global invasions". Global Change Biology. 30 (3): e17180. doi:10.1111/gcb.17180. hdl:1887/3729740. ISSN 1365-2486.
- ^ Tectonic units and division of the South Turgay Basin.