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Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. [1] The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics , which studies the movement of the continents as ...
Distribution of four Permian and Triassic fossil groups used as biogeographic evidence for continental drift, and land bridging. Location of Cynognathus remains shown by red diamonds. Fossils have been found in the Karoo, the Puesto Viejo Formation, Fremouw Formation, in South Africa/Lesotho, Argentina and Antarctica.
Schematic distribution of fossils on Pangea according to Wegener. Moving on to the 20th century, Alfred Wegener introduced the Theory of Continental Drift in 1912, though it was not widely accepted until the 1960s. [4] This theory was revolutionary because it changed the way that everyone thought about species and their distribution around the ...
For example, fossils of the therapsid Lystrosaurus have been found in South Africa, India and Antarctica, alongside members of the Glossopteris flora, whose distribution would have ranged from the polar circle to the equator if the continents had been in their present position; similarly, the freshwater reptile Mesosaurus has been found in only ...
Distribution of four Permian and Triassic fossil groups used as biogeographic evidence for continental drift, land bridging.. The continent of Gondwana was named by the Austrian scientist Eduard Suess, after the region in central India of the same name, which is derived from Sanskrit for "forest of the Gonds". [6]
The widespread distribution of Permo-Carboniferous glacial sediments in South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Antarctica and Australia was one of the major pieces of evidence for the theory of continental drift, and led ultimately to the concept of a super-continent, Pangaea.
The putative persistence of Glossopteris into younger strata is commonly invoked on the basis of the distribution of dispersed taeniate bisaccate pollen. [26] However, this category of pollen is known to have been produced by various seed plants, and Triassic examples, in the absence of convincing co-preserved Glossopteris leaves, probably ...
The combination of continental drift and evolution can sometimes be used to predict what will be found in the fossil record. Glossopteris is an extinct species of seed fern plants from the Permian. Glossopteris appears in the fossil record around the beginning of the Permian on the ancient continent of Gondwana. [155]