Oligocene biogeography of the North Pacific (Implications of Mollusks)

First biogeographic maps are proposed for the late Eocene-Oligocene of the North Pacific. The maps are compiled based on distribution of 120 molluscan species studied in 30 reference sections of the region. The analyzed Machigar (Sakhalin), Rategin, Amanina-Gakh (western Kamchatka), Asagai-Momidziyama (Japan) type assemblages and their age analogues are well known and described long ago. Over 50 schematic biogeographic maps illustrate distribution areas of different taxa in the late Eocene, early Oligocene, and late Oligocene epochs. Some of them characterize distribution areas of individual species, while the others depict habitat areas of typical (Machigar and Rategin) assemblages or certain genera different in terms of their thermotropism. Analysis of the maps resulted in recognition of the Japan-Kamchatka and Kamchatka-North American paleoprovinces, and indications of general gradual seawater temperature decrease during the Oligocene are defined. The attention is paid to the commenced diversification of North Pacific biota that leads to formation of boreal communities and also to different-rank the amphipacific dusjunctions.