Fig. 5: Simulated salinity and temperature in the proto-North Atlantic under varying paleogeographic scenarios.

A Zonal mean salinity (psu); B Zonal mean temperature (°C). Various paleogeographic scenarios are considered, including both open and restricted connections between the Arctic Ocean (ArO) and the Global Ocean (GO), as well as variations in the depth of the Central American Seaway (CAS), ranging from shallow (10 m) to deep (1700–2500 m). The analyzed region corresponds to Region B in Fig. 1.