What ancient reptile fossils were found in South America and Western Africa?
Mesosaurus, (genus Mesosaurus), early aquatic relative of reptiles, found as fossils from the Early Permian Period (299 million to 271 million years ago) in South Africa and South America.
Can Pangaea happen again?
The answer is yes. Pangea wasn’t the first supercontinent to form during Earth’s 4.5-billion-year geologic history, and it won’t be the last. So, there’s no reason to think that another supercontinent won’t form in the future, Mitchell said.
Is the presence of animal fossils tells the South?
Answer: A German scientist named Alfred Wegener proposed that all of the continents once had been joined in a supercontinent that he called Pangaea. Wegener found the same rock formations and fossils in Africa, South America, and Antarctica.
What kind of reptiles live in South America?
Four of these include the Cynognathus (a mammal-like land-dweller found in South America, Africa, China and Antarctica), Lystrosaurus (a pig-sized herbivore found in Africa, Antarctica, and India), Mesosaurus (a freshwater-dwelling anapsid reptile found in Africa and South America) and Ichthyosaurs (another aquatic reptile.
Are there reptile fossils in the Pacific Ocean?
Scientists have been collecting parallel evidence across the Pacific Ocean since the early 1900s. This evidence, which includes reptile fossils of matching genus, shows clearly that the Earth’s modern land masses were once close together and, likely, physically joined.
Where are Mesosaurus fossils found in the world?
Fossils of the reptile Mesosaurus have been found in both Africa and South America. Which of the following is a likely explanation for the fossils being found in these two places? Africa and South America were once joined and later broke apart.
Why are fossils found in Africa and South America?
Paleontologists discovering matching fossils in Africa and South America contributed greatly to the evidence behind the theory of continental drift. It seems to prove that these continents were once close enough to each other that animals and plants could easily move between them.
Four of these include the Cynognathus (a mammal-like land-dweller found in South America, Africa, China and Antarctica), Lystrosaurus (a pig-sized herbivore found in Africa, Antarctica, and India), Mesosaurus (a freshwater-dwelling anapsid reptile found in Africa and South America) and Ichthyosaurs (another aquatic reptile,
Where did the Mesosaurus reptile live in South America?
Mesosaurus, (genus Mesosaurus ), early aquatic relative of reptiles, found as fossils from the Early Permian Period (299 million to 271 million years ago) in South Africa and South America. Mesosaurus braziliensis. Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, New York Mesosaurus lived in freshwater lakes and ponds.
Scientists have been collecting parallel evidence across the Pacific Ocean since the early 1900s. This evidence, which includes reptile fossils of matching genus, shows clearly that the Earth’s modern land masses were once close together and, likely, physically joined.
Paleontologists discovering matching fossils in Africa and South America contributed greatly to the evidence behind the theory of continental drift. It seems to prove that these continents were once close enough to each other that animals and plants could easily move between them.
Mesosaurus, (genus Mesosaurus), early aquatic relative of reptiles, found as fossils from the Early Permian Period (299 million to 271 million years ago) in South Africa and South America. Mesosaurus lived in freshwater lakes and ponds.
Why fossils of the same species of a reptile were discovered in South America and in Western Africa?
Which best explains why fossils of the same species of a reptile were discovered in South America and in western Africa? The reptiles evolved in both South America and Africa. The continents of South America and Africa were once joined. Fossils give clues about past climate patterns.
Why are there fossils of the same species in South America and Africa?
They move at a very slow rate – usually measured in millions of years – and continents are either torn apart or collide together to form very large single continents. Fossils of the same genus/species suggest that contents that were once together, must have been together in the geological past.
What was the supercontinent called?
Pangaea
Pangea, also spelled Pangaea, in early geologic time, a supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth.
Do South America and Africa fit together?
The east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa seem to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and Wegener discovered their rock layers “fit” just as clearly. South America and Africa were not the only continents with similar geology.
Why does South America look like Africa?
South America and Africa were once together, but were split apart by the formation of a diverging plate boundary. This is confirmed by matches between the rocks and fossils of the two continents. Plate motion, not continents drifting, explains this. The two continents are still moving away from each other today.
Why does South America and Africa fit together?
Did South America break away from Africa?
Some 180 million years ago, in the Jurassic Period, the western half of Gondwana (Africa and South America) separated from the eastern half (Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica). The South Atlantic Ocean opened about 140 million years ago as Africa separated from South America.
Is the presence of animals fossil tells that South America Africa and Antarctica were once connected?
Many scientists thought that Africa, India, Australia, South America, and Antarctica had once been connected into a large ancient continent known as Gondwana. Those fossils belonged to a species previously found in Africa, providing further evidence that the distant present-day continents were once connected.
