Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

TheRealPopcornMaker OP t1_ixwopzz wrote

Reply to comment by CrustalTrudger in When prehistoric land masses are depicted, what is the accuracy to which they are drawn. Would the maps produced be useful for navigating that world? by TheRealPopcornMaker

Super detailed response thanks so much. So broadly speaking the maps could be used to navigate between landmasses and know when to expect mountain ranges, open plains and deserts up to around 500 million years ago?

89

haysoos2 t1_ixy6hsy wrote

Assuming you could figure out where you were on the map. That might not be as easy as it would seem. Getting a reasonable approximation to latitude wouldn't be that difficult, but beyond that there's not going to be any landmarks to tell you which continent you are on.

If it's in the Cenozoic or even parts of the Mesozoic you might get some biogeographic information from flora and fauna, but that's going to be sparser, and require some pretty specialized knowledge the further back you go. Those flora and fauna might even be your only real clue as to which time period you are in.

27