Pangaea

In 1910 a German scientist named Alfred Wegner discovered that a long time ago all of the continents all fit together. He observed that South America and Arica seemed to fit together almost perfectly. Alfred’s evidence to support his hypothesis was from the shapes of the continents, fossils, landforms, and an ancient ice age.

Scientists have found fossils or identical plants and animals on different side of the ocean. These plants and animals couldn’t have traveled across the oceans, so they must have been on the same continent in the past. Scientists thought that there was a land bridge between the continents, but Alfred Wegner didn’t think so. He thought that the continents had to be joined at one point.

When Alfred put together the continents in his map of Pangaea, he saw that landforms on different continents matched. (Mountains that run east to west across South Africa lined up with mountains in Argentina) Also strange rock formations and coal in South Africa were the same as rock formations an coal in Brazil. This proves that the continents had to be together/attached at one point.

Scientists had found striations from ancient glaciers along the coasts of both South America and South Africa. Both of the patterns formed by these striations were the same. Alfred Wegner found that on his map of Pangaea the continents, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica had once fit around the South Pole.

Maps of Pangaea

Maps of Current Continents

: fossils

:cold and dry...coal

:warm and humid...coal

KEY

Pangaea video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2qYMsNHGk