Late Permian to Middle Triassic palaeogeographic differentiation of key ammonoid groups: evidence from the former USSR

Abstract

Palaeontological characteristics of the Upper Permian and upper Olenekian to lowermost Anisian sequences in the Tethys and the Boreal realm are reviewed in the context of global correlation. Data from key Wuchiapingian and Changhsingian sections in Transcaucasia, Lower and Middle Triassic sections in the Verkhoyansk area, Arctic Siberia, the southern Far East (South Primorye and Kitakami) and Mangyshlak (Kazakhstan) are examined. Dominant groups of ammonoids are shown for these different regions. Through correlation, it is suggested that significant thermal maxima (recognized using geochemical, palaeozoogeographical and palaeoecological data) existed during the late Kungurian, early Wuchiapingian, latest Changhsingian, middle Olenekian and earliest Anisian periods. Successive expansions and reductions of the warm– temperate climatic zones into middle and high latitudes during the Late Permian and the Early and Middle Triassic are a result of strong climatic fluctuations.