{{short description|Large shallow body of salt water of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras}} {{redirect-distinguish-text|Ural Sea|the Ural Ocean}} The '''Turgai Strait''', also known as the '''Turgay/Turgai''' '''Sea''', '''Obik Sea''', '''Ural Sea'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allaby |first=Michael |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198839033.001.0001/acref-9780198839033 |title=A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-883903-3 |edition=5 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198839033.001.0001}}</ref> 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.<ref>Briggs, John C. ''Global Biogeography.'' Amsterdam, Elsevier Science, 1995; pp. 71, 76, 84, 88, and ff.</ref>
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."<ref>Duellman, William Edward. ''Biology of Amphibians.'' Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; p. 480.</ref>
The division of the Eurasian landmass by the Turgai Sea isolated terrestrial animal populations.<ref name="Duellman 1986">{{cite book |title=Biology of Amphibians |last= Duellman |first= William E. |year=1986 |publisher= JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-4780-6 |quote=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 |page=479 }}</ref> Notably, the isolation of Europe by the Turgai Sea led to it developing its own unique fauna via a mixture of Europe-endemic and African-originating lineages. Following the Turgai Strait's disappearance and the extinction of much of Europe's original fauna during the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, Asian-originating lineages such as water frogs managed to successfully migrate to and colonize Europe, leading to Europe's modern assemblage of taxa with primarily Asian origins.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Dufresnes |first=Christophe |last2=Monod-Broca |first2=Benjamin |last3=Bellati |first3=Adriana |last4=Canestrelli |first4=Daniele |last5=Ambu |first5=Johanna |last6=Wielstra |first6=Ben |last7=Dubey |first7=Sylvain |last8=Crochet |first8=Pierre-André |last9=Denoël |first9=Mathieu |last10=Jablonski |first10=Daniel |date=2024 |title=Piecing the barcoding puzzle of Palearctic water frogs (Pelophylax) sheds light on amphibian biogeography and global invasions |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.17180 |journal=Global Change Biology |language=en |volume=30 |issue=3 |article-number=e17180 |doi=10.1111/gcb.17180 |issn=1365-2486 |hdl-access=free |hdl=1887/3729740}}</ref>
The Turgai Strait derives its name from the Turgay Basin of modern-day Kazakhstan, where a stretch of the Turgai River flows.<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tectonic-units-and-division-of-the-South-Turgay-Basin_fig1_303294937 Tectonic units and division of the South Turgay Basin.]</ref>
==See also== {{portal|Oceans}} * {{annotated link|Rheic Ocean}} * {{annotated link|Sundance Sea}} * {{annotated link|Tethys Ocean}}
==References== <references/>
Category:Historical oceans Category:Jurassic paleogeography Category:Cretaceous paleogeography Category:Paleogene paleogeography Category:Geology of Kazakhstan Category:Geology of Russia
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