The role of Central Asia in dinosaurian biogeography

Abstract

Dinosaurian biogeography may have been largely controlled by the Mesozoic fragmentation of Pangea and the reassembly of its fragments into a new, boreal supercontinent (Laurasia). Although Late Triassic and Early Jurassic dinosaurs were globally distributed, Chinese assemblages were dominated by endemic forms from Middle Jurassic into Early Cretaceous time. The affinities of Aptian – Albian immigrants to Asia were strongest with North America and Europe rather than Gondwana, indicating that the northern and southern hemispheres had by then attained their biogeographic identity. This distinctiveness was maintained through Cretaceous time. Europe seems to have been a buffer area between Paleolaurasia and Gondwana; of the northern continents it was the most strongly influenced by Gondwana dispersants. Late Jurassic dinosaur assemblages in North America exhibited Gondwana affinities, but by Late Cretaceous time they were dominated by forms of Asian ancestry.