What is the land like where the Mesosaurus fossils are found? The fossils are found in both South America and Africa, about 4,000km apart.
Why are the Mesosaurus fossils separated by 4000 km of ocean?
This means that these plates, and the continents on top of these plates, are moving away from each other. This divergent plate motion explains why the fossil remains of Mesosaurus that were once together are now found on continents thousands of kilometers apart.
What is the land like where the Mesosaurus fossils are found?
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. Elongated and slim, it measured about 1 metre (3.3 feet) long.
How do Mesosaurus fossils support the past existence of Pangaea?
Mesosaurus fossils support Pangaea because the reptile was a freshwater and land reptile and fossils of the creature were found in South America and Africa so it couldn’t cross the by water. … For example, fossils of warm weather plants were found in Spitsbergen in the arctic ocean.
What could explain this distribution of Mesosaurus fossils?
What could explain the distribution of Mesosaurus fossils? South America and Africa were once part of Pangaea before it was separated into the continents. … Yes, because fossils were found in only two regions that are now separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
Where are Glossopteris fossils found?
The Glossopteris fossil is found in Australia, Antarctica, India, South Africa, and South America“all the southern continents.
What does the earliest fossil evidence of the Mesosaurus tells us about them?
Mesosaurus fossils have been found in South America and Africa. … The earliest fossil evidence for these animals indicates that they were alive about 300 million years ago, and their species went extinct about 260 million years ago.
What continents were Mesosaurus fossils found?
Remains of Mesosaurus, a freshwater crocodile-like reptile that lived during the early Permian (between 286 and 258 million years ago), are found solely in Southern Africa and Eastern South America. It would have been physiologically impossible for Mesosaurus to swim between the continents.
What is the earth’s plate?
A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Plate size can vary greatly, from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across; the Pacific and Antarctic Plates are among the largest.
How fast did Pangea break apart?
This is most dramatically seen between North America and Africa during Pangea’s initial rift some 240 million years ago. At that time, the slabs of rock that carried these present-day continents crawled apart from each other at a rate of a millimeter a year. They remained in this slow phase for about 40 million years.
What are 5 pieces of evidence that support continental drift?
The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.
What does Pangaea mean in Greek?
Pangea was surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa, and it was fully assembled by the Early Permian Epoch (some 299 million to 273 million years ago). … Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”
What was the response to Wegener’s hypothesis?
“That was always his response: Just assert it again, even more strongly.” By the time Wegener published the final version of his theory, in 1929, he was certain it would sweep other theories aside and pull together all the accumulating evidence into a unifying vision of the earth’s history.
What have you observed on the distribution of fossils?
The Fossil Record
They are useful in dating geological material, because they indicate which species were alive at the time the rock was formed. The geographic distribution of fossils is also useful in understanding how different species spread and evolved over time.
What is fossils evidence?
Key Points. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the past. Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today.
How do fossils provide evidence for plate tectonics?
Evidence from fossils, glaciers, and complementary coastlines helps reveal how the plates once fit together. … This distribution of fossils led to theories that the southern continents were once joined in a supercontinent called Gondwana. Similar geologic formations on different continents show historic land connections.