Overflow into the Mediterranean is the most likely hypothesis for the Paratethys' disappearance. The phenomenon is thought to have occurred between 6.7 and 6.9 million years ago. Today the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea are lakes formed from the remains of the Paratethys.
The name is associated with Greek mythology. Thetis, the goddess of water sources, was the wife of Oceanus, the god of rivers. In the Mesozoic Era (250 to 65 million years ago), Tethys was the sea that separated the continents Laurasia (which gave rise to North America, part of Asia and Europe) and Gondwana (which gave rise to the other presentday continents). . Paratethys is the lake created by separating the northern part of this sea from the rest of the waters.
“The lake reached an area that is now far from the sea, but the region is full of signs that there was once water there,” says the researcher. According to Irina Patina, a scientist at the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (who assisted USP with the study), it is common to find shells and whale remains in what is now a mountainous area.
The study was publicly funded
The research received around R$300,000 from Fapesp (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation).. In 2021, the results of the work were published in Nature, one of the most important scientific publications in the world. For the past three years, the Guinness team has been reviewing all study data to include the discovery in the Book of Records.
“Triumph for Brazilian science,” says researcher about the work. According to Palcu, the study contributes to understanding how the planet works and can be useful in a climate change scenario. Scientists' expectations are to analyze the changes the Earth has undergone in the past to predict what might happen if current climate changes become even more severe.