![]() But Wegener argued that rising and falling land bridges in the oceans were not likely considering the observation that the ocean crust was made of denser (basaltic) rock than the continents. Paleontologists called on implausible land bridges connecting the continents. It seemed impossible to account for such stunning parallel evolution. These and a number of other fossil groups had identical populations separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean. ![]() Fossils of aįamily of seed ferns, Glossopteris, were found in Africa, South America, India, and Antarctica. Though they could not swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Mesosaurus, were found in both Africa and South America even ![]() He was also aware of certain problems that had been noted by These indicated to Wegener that the continents must have moved (Europe from near the equator, Africa from the polar region into the equatorial region). In rocks of the same age in equatorial Africa he knew there were glacial tillites. He studied the geologic literature and recognized that upper Paleozoic (Carboniferous and Permian) strata in northwestern Europe strata contained extensive coals that could only have formed in a hot wet climate like the present equatorial region. Among other things, he studied paleoclimate indicators in sedimentary strata. Wegener was a meteorologis and geologist. Proposed that the continents had been split apart. Scholars had noted the complementary shapes of the coastlines ofĮurope and Africa with North and South America. The 16th and 17th centuries, as rudimentary maps were produced, The continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features,Īs far back as the voyages of exploration of the New World in Their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of Three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920sĪnd 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics ![]()
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