It was not until the early twentieth century that a German scientist, Professor Alfred Lothar Wegener, pursued scientific evidence that showed fossil species in eastern America and western Africa were the same. If the notion of drifting continents was to be rejected, then the only possible explanation of the fossil evidence was the parallel development of exactly the same species in different continents, an explanation that was discounted.
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Subsequently, Alexander du Toit in South Africa became a strong supporter of the continental drift theory, and in 1937 published Our Wandering Continents. He suggested that Wegener’s ‘parent’ landmass, called Pangaea, had existed until about 250 million years ago, when it broke into two parts:
Additional continents came into being when these two landmasses were further broken up, and du Toit found more evidence of geological links between Africa and South America. |
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How Earth Will Look In 250 million Years
By Tech Insider [2:06] Description: According to plate tectonics theory, Earth's outer shell is divided into multiple plates that slowly glide over the mantle. This slowly changes Earth's surface over time by merging, or separating, continents. |
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