"a large part of the Gulf of Mexico was once dry land. The western shelf of Florida and the Yucatan were particularly large chunks." I've gone so far as to speculate that the Gulf Of Mexico was blocked off from the world's oceans during the Ice Age...and, at some point reflooded, like the Black Sea.
I've gone so far as to speculate that the Gulf Of Mexico was blocked off from the world's oceans during the Ice Age...and, at some point reflooded, like the Black Sea. I haven't run across a model that would support that notion yet, but I haven't done a whole lot of research on the subject either. Ya never know. I ran across a clean graphic of the Gulf ~18,000 years ago, on the EPA's website of all places:
FGS