Prehistoric Mesopotamia?

[ixchel55]

I'm looking for information about what the land itself would be like in and around Mesopotamia in prehistoric times. The period isn't that important, just as long as it's pre-man - say Triassic period or before

Comments

[uozaki]

http://www.scotese.com/
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/globaltext2.html

For the topography. Scotese's nice because he overlays the modern outlines of things, but I prefer Blakey's aesthetics. Also Scotese has some paleoclimate information.

[ixchel55]

Wonderful information! Thank you so much for the links.

[ataramos]

Try searching for 'Triassic Map' or any of the specific times through google and you'll find many maps that have outlines of where current landmasses and such were then. I know the Middle East was under water at various points, as they've found whale skeletons in the middle of the desert.

[ixchel55]

Thank you. I hadn't thought to google specifically for maps. Very helpful.

[calcitrix]

I am fairly certain that the reason the area has so much oil now is because it was under the ocean for most of that time. Oil deposits are from the accumulation of phytoplankton and whatnot on a seabed when sediment overlays it and traps it. Also there aren't any dinosaur fossils in that area. Turkey might be about as close as you would get that was above water then.

But with "prehistoric" you've still got millions of years, there. There were several million years between dinos and the first humans, so. Try the early cenozoic era maybe?

[atheneglaukopis]

"But with "prehistoric" you've still got millions of years, there. There were several million years between dinos and the first humans, so."
This, and also, "prehistoric" means "before the invention of writing." So anything up until about 5,000 years ago in Sumer. Pre-man is something different.

[calcitrix]

We seem to be using the term in a more generalized, less pedantic sense here. We know what it technically means.

[sollersuk]

That's as may be but the heading certainly confused me since the word "Mesopotamia" was used; it has such a specific meaning (which depends on the presence of the Tigris and the Euphrates) and is used by archaeologists rather than palaeontologists

[hyarrowen]

When I was researching my time-travel story I used, as search terms, specific countries or localities as well as geological period or epoch. Then I fed them into Google Images... cut out a lot of (though not all) extraneous stuff. And I read obsessively.

I also watched the BBC series 'Walking with Dinosaurs' which suggested that the weather forecast for most of the Mesozoic was 'warm and damp' - apart from Antarctica, which got a bit colder towards the end!

[ixchel55]

I did try using 'Iraq' specifically, but no joy. I don't know why I didn't think to use Google Images since I've used it so very many times for other searches.

*head desk*

Thank you.

[hyarrowen]

It might also be worth using the Google Advanced Search page, and putting "oil" and "petroleum" in the field "but don't show..."