1: In 1915 Alfred Wegner, a German climatologist and geophysicst, published The Origin of Continents and Oceans. In this book he proposed his theory of the continental drift.2: The first evidence that lead people to suspect that the continents were once connected was the evidence of the continental jigsaw puzzle. Wegner noticed that the coast lines of the continents could be made to fit together. This was especially true for South America and Africa.3: Pangaea About 200 million years ago A super continent called Pangaea broke up, and the continents drifted to their current position. Pangaea means "all land".4: Wegner listed many of evidence to support his idea: 1: Jigsaw puzzle continentsWegner noticed that the cost lines of continents could be made to fit together. 2: Fossils match across the seaWegner noticed that the same fossils could be found in South Africa and South America. These fossils, he says, were formed before the two continents split.3: Rock types matchThe actual geology of South America and Africa match as well. Again this supports that these rocks were formed when the continents were formed.4: Ancient climate evidenceParts of South America, Africa, Australia and India were covered with ice 200 million years ago.5: The discovery of the fossil remains of the Mesosaurus in both South America and Africa, but no where else supports the Continental drift hypothesis because the Mesosaurus is a presumably aquatic reptile whose remains are limited to eastern South American and Southern Africa. If the Mesosaurus had been able to swim well enough to cross the vast South Atlantic Ocean, its remains should be more widely distributed. Since this is not the case, South America and Africa at one point must have been joined.6:The prevailing view of how land animals migrated across vast expanses of oceans was the idea of land bridges was the most widely accepted soutlion to the problem of migration. But we know that fro...
