DINOSAUR BIOGEOGRAPHY DURING THE MESOZOIC

More than 1000 genera of dinosaurs have been described from over 5000 localities worldwide (Weishampel et al., 2005). We have built an ArcGIS (ESRI) database that uses the spatial, temporal and cladistic information contained in the Weishampel compilation to plot the changing distribution of dinosaur clades on a new set of 16 paleogeographic maps for the Mesozoic: Triassic (2 maps), Jurassic (6 maps) and Cretaceous (8 maps). The goal of this project is to analyze the tempo and mode of dinosaur evolution from a biogeographic point-of-view. The new paleogeographic maps illustrate the changing configuration of the continents and ocean basins, map out ancient climatic belts, and describe how ephemeral corridors and barriers to migration opened and closed as a consequence of sea level fluctuations and topographic changes. The maps, which are based on paleo-digital elevation models (paleo-DEMs,) are especially useful for visualizing the trans-polar migration routes that played an important role in dinosaur dispersal. In this talk we will describe how the maps and ArcGIS dinosaur database was assembled, and review the broad biogeographic patterns of dinosaur vicariance and dispersal during the Mesozoic.