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Latitude governs how much solar energy a location receives creating a pole to equator gradient that can surpass the entire range of climates at any given point during the last 500 million years. Climate sensitive sediment facies show that East Asia experienced huge synchronous climate swings during the Mesozoic consistent with two massive true polar wander (TPW) latitudinal translations though a fundamentally zonal climate system. New data reveal that during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic (237-175 Ma), much of China experienced freezing lowland winters, consistent with paleomagnetic evidence for the largest polar landmass since the Paleozoic, far larger than present Antarctica. In the Late Jurassic, this region rapidly became arid, matching a ~30° translation into a more arid climatic belt predicted by the controversial “Monster Shift” TPW, followed by a northward shift to present latitudes.

Paleoclimate data also support more complex translations of East Asian blocks during Permian and Triassic amalgamation with Siberia, with climate shifting from humid to arid and then back to humid with freezing winters in more northern areas by the Late Triassic. For southern blocks, evidence supports cumulative latitudinal shifts of >50° of combined plate motion and TPW effects. These TPW paleogeographic scenarios imply: 1) non-avian dinosaurs were cold-adapted and widespread in polar regions, resolving longstanding conundrums of Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems; 2) shifting climates influenced styles of exceptional dinosaur preservation; and 3) that these shifts drove China’s rich lacustrine hydrocarbon and high latitude coal resources.