Turgai Strait

"Ural Sea" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Ural Ocean.

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 animal populations.^[4]

The Turgai Strait derives its name from the Turgay Basin of modern-day Kazakhstan, where a stretch of the Turgai River flows.^[5]

See also

• Rheic Ocean – Ancient ocean which separated two major palaeocontinents, Gondwana and Laurussia
• Sundance Sea – Inland sea that existed in North America during the mid- to late Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era
• Tethys Ocean – Prehistoric ocean between Gondwana and Laurasia

References

1. 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.
2. Briggs, John C. Global Biogeography. Amsterdam, Elsevier Science, 1995; pp. 71, 76, 84, 88, and ff.
3. Duellman, William Edward. Biology of Amphibians. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; p. 480.
4. 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
5. Tectonic units and division of the South Turgay Basin.