Oceanic basins in prehistory of the evolution of the Arctic Ocean

During geodynamic reconstruction of the Late Mezozoic-Cenozoic evolution of the Arctic Ocean, a problem arises: did this ocean originate as a legacy structure of ancient basins, or did it evolve independently? Solution of this problem requires finding indicators of older oceanic basins within the limits of the Arctic Region. The Arctic Region has structural-material complexes of several ancient oceans, namely, Mesoproterozoic, Late Neoproterozoic, Paleozoic (Caledonian and Hercynian), Middle Paleozoic-Late Jurassic, and those of the Arctic Ocean, including the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Canadian, the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene Podvodnikov-Makarov, and the Cenozoic Eurasian basins. The appearances of all these oceans were determined by a complex of global geodynamical factors, which were principally changed in time, and, as a result of this, location and configuration of newly opened oceans, as well as ones of adjacent continents, which varied from stage to stage. By the end of the Paleozoic, fragments of the crust corresponding to Precambrian and Caledonian oceans were transported during plate-tectonic motions from southern and near equatorial latitudes to moderately high and arctic ones, and, finally, became parts of the Pangea II supercontinent. The Arctic Ocean that appeared after the Pangea II breakup (being a part of the Atlantic Ocean) has no direct either genetic or spatial relation with more ancient oceans.