the land mass where all the continents were connected a supercontinent, and named it Pangaea which means, “one earth.” There are many pieces of evidence that support the theory of Continental Drift and Pangaea, but in my essay, I will focus on South America. In Pangaea, South America was directly bordered by Africa and Antarctica, with the ocean to the west. South America was located in the southwest corner of Pangaea, with Africa to the northeast and Antarctica along South America’s
Planet Earth has experience four eras that include eleven periods and six mass extinctions throughout evolution. The Evolving Planet exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL describes the evolution of Earth in great detail. The evolution of Earth starts in the Precambrian period and continues to the Cenozoic era, which is still continuing today. Evolution is the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that existed from earlier forms of life. All the organisms, rocks, or other
continent formed by the merging of numerous continents, it was known as Pangaea. The forceful movement of the tectonic plates resulted in Pangaea being split into two smaller land masses. These two smaller land masses were identified as Gondwana and Laurasia. The splitting of Gondwana and Laurasia occurred around 230-280 million years ago. Gondwana or ‘Gondwanaland’ was a primeval supercontinent and was once the southern land mass of Pangaea. Gondwana consisted of not only continents but countries too. Today
Continental Drift The world has not always looked how it does today. Gondwana, originally known as 'Gondwanaland', was an ancient southern supercontinent that formed as the result of the division of a much larger supercontinent known as Pangaea. Pangaea existed around 500 million years ago until 150 to 300 million years ago when it broke apart to form the super continents Gondwana and Laurasia. Gondwana was composed of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, Antarctica, the Arabian
1. What is continental drift? Is a theory that shows how continents shift on the earth’s surface. Explained why look-alike plant fossils and animals, and similar rock formations, are found on different continents. 2. What was Alfred Wegener’s hypothesis for continental drift, and why was his idea not accepted? He suggested that the continents plowed across the ocean floors but could not explain the information properly. Wegener could not identify the cause of continental drift and thus having most
Lines of Evidence Supporting Continental Drift There are five lines of evidence that supports continental drift. These include continental fit, similarities of rock sequences, mountain ranges, fossil evidence and glacial evidence. Continental drift was recognized as a solid theory in the mid-nineteen sixty’s. Continental drift was first discovered by Alfred Wegener, a meteorologist, who suggested that all land masses were at one time joined together. This was called Pangea, a Greek work meaning
P1a Theory of plate tectonics Nomaan Tufail Alfred Wegner was a German scientist who came up with the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift. He noticed that plates were drifting away from each other, constantly. He called this process continental drift. He was really interested in metrology and climatology. Wegner made many contributions towards metrology and also earned a Ph.D. in astronomy. He died when he
There is quite a controversy of how the world is how it is nowadays. Over the years many scientists explored different theories to discover how, though one theory still stands, the continental drift theory. Discovered by Alfred Wegener, in 1912, he proposed that the continents were all once conjoined as one massive continent, to which is now referred to as Pangea meaning ‘all earth’. However, approximately 200 million years ago Pangea broke apart into two pieces, Laurasia and Gondwana. Gondwana
Pangaea is the idea of the continents shifting away from each other. This happened due to plates within the world shifting, and the sea floor changing (Diets & Holden, 1970). Those which were once one solo piece of land mass became individual continents, with invisible borders, independent nations, and complete isolation from the neighboring continents. It is now roughly 250 million years later (NASA, 2010), and the shape that was once Pangaea no longer exists, but there is now a connection with
sapiens, evolved from homo erectus, originated in Africa and spread throughout Asia and Europe. Their ability to spread was related to the continents being close to each other, a land mass called Pangaea. It wasn’t until around 15,000 BP when the first Paleo-Indians migrated into North America. At this point Pangaea had broken into separate land masses that would become the modern day continents. The migration into North America was only possible during a period of deep freeze. Ocean levels dropped and
3. The Paleozoic Era was from 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago; at this time big changes began to happen on Earth. The era began with the disintegration of a supercontinent and the creation of another. Plants began to grow all over the place. Also at this time the first vertebrate animals conquered the land. Also Paleozoic appeared with the Cambrian Period, 53 million years is when life started to burst on Earth. The Cambrian period again gave way to the beginning of arthropods
Pangaea wouldn’t have separated without the plate tectonics moving and shifting. Life as we known it would be less diverse and evolution wouldn’t have such a great role as it has. One example is when Madagascar broke off from Africa about 160 million years ago. Most of the animals found on that island are not found anywhere else on the planet. The idea of having a modern day Pangaea would mean that the interior of the supercontinent would be dry and hot and the out skirts of Pangaea would
The world is forever evolving, never remaining permanent. Land that once rose above the sea years ago is slowly sinking due to rising sea levels and global warming, animals evolving and having to adapt to new environments after the earth’s crust parted due to continental drift creating new islands and continents. The proof for the theory of evolution is embedded in the crusts of the earth of today, telling the story of the geography of genetics. What is evolution? Evolution is the gradual change
According to the textbook, Alfred Wegner proposed the idea that the continents were drifting across the globe. He called this idea the continental drift. He had the idea that the continents were once together forming one big landmass named Pangaea. As Pangaea developed it caused the continent to break apart, and drift to their present locations. To be able to prove this idea however, he had to have evidence to show it was true. If I could travel back in time to help Wegner prove his idea to be true
Professor Leach agreed that our whole universe started from a “big bang” from a very tiny atom. My brain was all over the place after taking in all the information because everything added up perfectly. Another topic was the theory of “Pangaea.” The theory of Pangaea is that million of years ago all our continents were together into one big land mass. Some scientists say that all the meteors that hit earth throughout millions of years might have caused the drifting away. I believe in this theory because
Climate change influences nonhuman primate evolution in a number of ways. Fore example, in Central Asia, climates increased temperature by an insane amount. However, the issue among primates became that it was too dry of an environment and they were not able to survive. Primates among the northern hemisphere pretty much disappeared as a result of the increase in temperature of that period. Additionally, in South Asia and East Africa, tropical rain forests were being taken out and instead they would
Already there were evolved organisms spread out across the vast land. During the breakup of Pangaea, resulted two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana. These two split, moved, and so on. This resulted in many changes of environment, which caused animals to adapt and evolve to the isolated environment of islands. For example, Australia had been
various features. The tectonic plates and their boundaries help determine the appearance and form of the continental margin. This can best be exemplified by the east coast of North America where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. When the super continent Pangaea drifted
of scientists, there were dinosaurs long before humans appeared. Bones, habitats ,etc were all realistic evidences for the theory of dinosaurs. He also raised the point of Pangaea. Humans were all the same, however, after the breaking up of the continents, evolution happened and some people had darker skin. The theory of Pangaea was first discovered by Alfred Wegener. It was orginally ridiculed but later climate, fossil plants and animals, glaciations proved this theory and it became widely known
The Columbian Exchange caused a swapping of crops, animals, religions, and diseases between the Americas and the Old World. This exchange of goods and animals caused a reconnection between the continents that were once joined as one large landmass, Pangaea, many years ago. The discovery of the New World by the Old World causes one to consider why the Old World was so successful and how different the world would be if the roles of discovery were reversed and the New World discovered the Old. The Portuguese