Why are some fossils of the same type found thousands of miles apart on different continents?

Fossil Evidence

There are many examples of fossils found on separate continents and nowhere else, suggesting the continents were once joined. If Continental Drift had not occurred, the alternative explanations would be:

Table of Contents Show

Fossil Evidence
Why are the same fossils found on different continents?
Why are fossils of the same type of animal located on continents separated by thousands of miles of oceans?
Why are fossils found in different places?
How can you explain the presence of these fossils on different continental coasts?

The species evolved independently on separate continents – contradicting Darwin’s theory of evolution.
They swam to the other continent/s in breeding pairs to establish a second population.

Image: From This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics p8

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. This suggests that South America and Africa were joined during the Early Permian.

Cynognathus is an extinct mammal-like reptile. The name literally means ‘dog jaw’. Cynognathus was as large as a modern wolf and lived during the early to mid Triassic period (250 to 240 million years ago). It is found as fossils only in South Africa and South America.

Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus - which literally means ‘shovel reptile’ - was dominant on land in the early Triassic, 250 million years ago. It is thought to have been herbivorous and grew to approximately one metre in length, with a stocky build like a pig. Fossils of Lystrosaurus are only found in Antarctica, India and South Africa.

Glossopteris was a woody, seed-bearing shrub or tree, named after the Greek descripton of ‘tongue’ – a description of the shape of the leaves. Some reached 30m tall. It evolved during the Early Permian (299 million years ago) and went on to become the dominant species throughout the period, not becoming extinct until the end of the Permian. Fossils are found in Australia, South Africa,South America, India and Antarctica.

When the continents of the southern hemisphere are re-assembled into the single land mass of Gondwanaland, the distribution of these four fossil types form linear and continuous patterns of distribution across continental boundaries.

Glacial deposits

This is usually taken to be evidence for plate tectonic movement of the contents.

Explanation:

Earth's plates have been in motion for over 3 billion years. 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.

How did fossils provide evidence for continental drift?

Question Date: 2015-06-11

Answer 1:

Fossils are the buried pieces of animals from a long time ago. We know that some animals only live in certain areas -- for instance, if you found a fossil of a fish, you would know that at the time when the fish was alive that part of the world was an aquatic environment. How about if we found tropical fish -- we would know that it was a warm ocean when those fish were living. There are many places on earth where we could find tropical fish, but how about if we found a fossil kangaroo? We know that kangaroos are only found on Australia. Let`s pretend that you found a kangaroo fossil on the southern tip of India, you would then think that India must have at one point been attached to Australia, otherwise how would the kangaroos have gotten there when Indian is so far away from Australia?

We have found fossils of animals and plants that existed in a small area of the world, but they exist on what is today 2 continents -- but we know they only existed in one place, so we can deduce that those continents were once attached together, and have now separated!

We can use fossils to re-construct how our continents were, to re-trace continental drift and calculate how they were spread out on the earth millions of years ago.

Answer 2:

Fossils show that the continents drifted because similar fossils were found where the continents were together millions of years ago. For example, Africa and South America fit together like this:

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There have been fossils found of a crocodile that lived in that region on both Africa and South America, suggesting that when the continents were together, the animal lived there. When they died, the continents split apart leaving identical dead crocodiles thousands of miles apart:

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Answer 3:

Different kinds of animals and plants live in different parts of the world. This is true now, and it was true in the past. As a result, if you find fossils of the same animal or plant on different continents now, then that is evidence that those two continents may have been a single continent when those fossils were formed.

Answer 4:

Before geologists accepted the continental drift theory, paleontologists knew that certain fossils of ancient land creatures could be found on continents that are separated by thousands of miles of ocean. For example, fossils of ancient reptiles called Cynognathus and Mesosaurus have been found on South America and Africa. Also, fossils of the plant Glossopteris have been found on South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia.

The only way these fossils can be found on continents that are separated by oceans is if the continents were once together (connected). These ancient animals and plants could not have swam across oceans! Therefore, these creatures must have lived on a giant continent that later broke apart, and the pieces drifted away from each other. Fossil records are strong evidence that the continents do drift.

Answer 5:

Fossils are formed when living organisms (plants or animals) die and become buried in dirt, sand or mud. Over time, the organism decays and the area it occupied is replaced with inorganic rock. Fossils from certain organisms have been found in similar rock formations but on different parts of the planet. Fossils made by the same type of organism in the same type of rock were likely formed at the same time and in the same place. The rock that contained the fossils must have moved after they were formed. (That the organism lived separately on both sides of the planet and happened to die in similar terrain is much less likely.) By looking at where fossils from different organisms are now and the age of the rock they are in, scientists can build a picture of the path that the rock must have taken to get there. For example, dinosaur fossils found in South America and Africa provide evidence that the two continents used to be part of the same larger land mass, Gondwanaland: click here please

The theory of continental drift (famously argued by Alfred Wegener in 1921) did not become widely accepted until we could explain why and how the continents moved. The theory of plate tectonics (proposed by Samuel Warren Carey in 1958) proposed that the surface of the Earth is composed of large plates that float on liquid rock (magma). The plates are formed when the liquid rock is exposed to the surface and destroyed when they are pushed back into magma layer. The formation and destruction of the plates provides the driving force for the continents to move over time.

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Why are the same fossils found on different continents?

Scientists have found fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of similar age. These rocks were on the shores of different continents. This suggests that the continents were once joined. For example, fossils of Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile, have been found both in Brazil and western Africa.

Why are fossils of the same type of animal located on continents separated by thousands of miles of oceans?

Why are fossils found in different places?

Fossils are mostly found where sedimentary rocks of the right age – which for dinosaurs is the Mesozoic – are exposed. The best places are river valleys, cliffs and hillsides, and human-made exposures such as quarries and road cuttings.

How can you explain the presence of these fossils on different continental coasts?

There are various examples of fossils found on separate continents and in no other regions. This indicates that these continents had to be once joined together because the extensive oceans between these land masses act as a type of barrier for fossil transfer.