Oklahoma versus Moroccan Devonian Trilobites
A striking example of trilobite paleogeography is seen
by comparing Devonian
trilobites from Oklahoma with those coming from Morocco.
While the trilobite bearing strata are today on different
continents, separated by the Atlanta Ocens and more than
4000 miles, such was not the case in the Devonian. During
the Devonian, what is now Oklahoma lay in shallow waters
off the coast of supercontinent, and what is now Morocco
in shallow waters off the coast of supercontinent Euramerica,
both at similat latitudes in the southern hemisphere. Ostensibly,
they were close enough and the paleoenvironments similar
enough that a number of genera in different orders spread
and then separately evolved. |
