Thailand, Land of Geodiversity and Paleobiodiversity | Anisong Chitnarin

Thailand, Land of Geodiversity and Paleobiodiversity

Thailand is situated in Southeast Asia mainland. It comprises an amalgamation of Paleo-Tethys realms, Mesozoic terrestrial systems, and buried Cenozoic semi-consolidated sediments. The Paleozoic-Mesozoic tectonic provinces composing Thailand can be recognized from West to East, the terranes with similar geologic history being distributed in N-S trending belts. Collisions between Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates started about fifty million years ago and modified mountain ranges, faults, and basins throughout the country. Metamorphic basements are exposed extensively in the northern region. The oldest sedimentary rocks are dated to the Late Cambrian. The Lower Paleozoic systems are confined to the western and southern regions, with all Paleozoic rocks being of marine origin, as shown by their fossil content. The eastern half of Thailand was uplifted during the Late Permian, possibly to the Early Jurassic; the oldest prosauropods were recovered from Upper Jurassic deposits in the North-Eastern region. Terrestrial vertebrates and plants flourished during the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The western half of Thailand was under shallow marine waters during the Jurassic, which dried out during the Cretaceous. During the Eocene and Miocene, intermontane basins and subbasins opened due to Neotectonics events, enabling diverse organisms, such as flowering plants, insects, mammals, to establish. The fossil record of Thailand is dense and diverse but still largely remains to be explored.

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