Early Permian location of western North American terranes based on brachiopod, fusulinid, and coral biogeography

Northern Cordilleran terranes and their interactions through time

“…For instance, Permian fossil assemblages characteristic of the McCloud faunal belt in rocks of the Intermontane terranes imply considerable mobility of these terranes with respect to the Laurentian margin. On the basis of faunal affinities, Belasky et al (2002) proposed that they probably lay ~2000-3000 km west of the Laurentian margin in Early Permian time. In our model of Cordilleran evolution ( Fig.…”

“…Estimates of paleogeographic positions and origins of the Intermontane terranes are derived primarily from detrital zircon populations, isotopic compositions, and faunal assemblages Belasky et al, 2002). Although these methods provide imprecise pins (e.g., detrital zircons can travel long distances), they all consistently show ties to the Laurentian craton.…”

Smithian and Spathian (Early Triassic) ammonoid assemblages from terranes: Paleoceanographic and paleogeographic implications

“…In contrast, longitudinal displacements are more difficult to recognize. Nevertheless, some attempts of quantitative reconstruction based on corals have been rather successful (Belasky, 1996;Belasky and Runnegar, 1994;Belasky et al, 2002).…”

Roadian–Wordian (Guadalupian, Middle Permian) global palaeobiogeography of brachiopods

“…Literally hundreds of similarity indices and methodologies have been proposed for Q-mode analyses (e.g., Shi, 1993;Shang and Jin, 1997;Belasky et al, 2002). This is inevitable because the information for each sample is multivariate (many genera) and there are many ways of defining similarities depending on how the different common aspects between objects or stations are emphasized and weighted.…”

“…However, exceptions may also occur because of different palaeogeography, oceanic circulations and climate at different times (Humphreyville and Bambach, 1979;Belasky et al, 2002;Shen and Shi, 2004). In order to test this widelyperceived phenomenon, we carried out two analyses to test if Roadian-Wordian palaeobiogeography and diversity patterns are related to palaeolatitude.…”