Did the Dinaric Alps force an arid climate and speciation?

The connection between the growth of large mountain ranges, such as the Andes or the Himalayas, and regional climate change is well documented by many scientific studies. The strong uplift of these mountain massifs through tectonic processes causes regional climate change, which leads to completely different depositional conditions and an increased adaptation-related diversification of the fauna in their distribution area. The careful investigations of rock sequences and their fossils increasingly confirmed the assumption of a corresponding interaction between regional climate and speciation also for lower mountain ranges, such as the Dinaric Alps (Dinarides) in southeastern Europe. The regional climate actually appears to have changed significantly as a result of the uplift of the Dinarides during the last global warming 17 to 15 million years ago. In the course of this warming, a noticeably dry climate spread on their land side and a wet climate on their sea side, with visible consequences for the distribution of fauna and flora across the mountain range. However, further study of this phenomenon is limited by the lack of information as to whether the basins beyond the range were truly contemporaneous or not. This uncertainty is primarily due to very sparse age dating of the sedimentary sequences of the landwards exposed Internal Dinarides. Our study aims to first examine whether the uplift of the Dinaric Alps coincides in time with the climatic conditions that led to an uneven nature of the sedimentary sequences and their fossil fauna and flora across their axis. This project is achieved through targeted and comprehensive uranium-lead age dating of volcanic ash layers and carbonate sequences in the sedimentary basins of the Internal Dinarides. Based on the newly created age model, the temporal and spatial distribution of the fossil fauna and flora of the examined sedimentary basins will be subjected to an extensive examination. The combination of the findings obtained in this work with the existing findings from the basins of the External Dinarides will enable a precise correlation of sediment and fossil sequences across the mountain range. Finally, the knowledge gained through this project will enable us to accurately assess the connections between the growth of small mountain massifs such as the Dinarides, the changes in the regional climate and the development of their animals and plants.