PALEOZOIC PALEOGEOGRAPHY

We present a set of 7 new paleogeographic 'non-Pangaean' reconstructions showing lithofacies distributions and land-sea relationships for selected intervals from the Cambrian to the Permian Periods. We first discuss the advantages and limitations of all the kinds of evidence - paleomagnetic, biogeographic, tectonic and climatic - that have been used to determine the orientations and interrelationships of the continents in the Paleozoic. Secondly we describe the methods used to 'flesh-out' the base maps with the regional topographic and bathymetric details. Finally we discuss the individual paleogeographic reconstructions with special reference to the degree of confirmation of the paleomagnetic predictions by the distribution of the climatically sensitive sediments. -from Authors