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The climates of Pangea are reviewed, with an emphasis on results from modeling studies. A moderate amount of progress has been made in modeling Pangean climates since the first studies were conducted in 1989. One of the most dominant features of the modeled supercontinent involves the very large annual cycles, which are directly related to low heat capacities of large land areas. Sensitivity experiments suggest that changes in CO2 and orbital insolation forcing can sometimes shift the winter freezing line to 50 to 60° paleolatitude; however, significant subfreezing winter temperatures still occur in higher latitudes. These results are not easily reconcilable with some geologic data and represent a significant impediment to confident application of modeling results to Pangean climate. Additional simulations suggest that the large landmass considerably amplifies system sensitivity to Milankovitch forcing in both hemispheres. Unusually high temperatures during 10,000-year precession half cycles could complicate interpretations of geologic deposits from high latitudes. Preliminary work coupling geography, CO2, and orbital insolation changes provides insight into onset and retreat of Permo-Carboniferous glaciers, along with cyclical sea-level fluctuations during that time. Modeled precipitation-minus-evaporation for Pangean land areas is about 50 to 60% that of present; this result supports the concept of dry Mesozoic climates. Combined temperature and precipitation changes during Pangean time may have significantly influenced the distribution of terrestrial biota. Several suggestions are made for improving validation of Pangean climate simulations.

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