Paleomagnetic signatures in the area’s rocks indicate that sometime between 174 and 157 million years ago, the whole region shifted southward by a startling 25 degrees, plunging once lush landscapes into zones of desiccating heat. Now, a study published in the journal Geology suggests that it wasn’t the climate that changed, but the geographic location of the landscape. And yet, researchers have struggled to pin down a climate-related culprit behind this ecological collapse. As the water disappeared, so too did the life. Then, almost in a geologic instant, the air grew warmer and the land dried out. At first, it seems like a case of extinction by climate change: More than 160 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, a fanciful menagerie crept, swam, and flew through the cool, damp forests of what is now northeastern China.
