How Was The Fossil Record Of Ancient Life Used To Support Wegener’S Hypothesis About Pangaea?

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How Was The Fossil Record Of Ancient Life Used To Support Wegener’s Hypothesis About Pangaea??

How was the fossil record of ancient life used to support Wegener’s hypothesis about Pangaea? Fossils of identical organisms were found on several continents indicating the continents were once joined. … The continental shelves are the edges of the continent.

How did fossils help support the hypothesis of continental drift?

Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The fossils of these organisms are found on lands that are now far apart. … Wegener suggested that these creatures were alive in warm climate zones and that the fossils and coal later had drifted to new locations on the continents.

How did Wegener’s fossil evidence support his theory that the continents used to be connected?

Alfred Wegener collected diverse pieces of evidence to support his theory including geological “fit” and fossil evidence. … 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.

What evidence supports the Pangaea theory?

The rock formations of eastern North America Western Europe and northwestern Africa were later found to have a common origin and they overlapped in time with the presence of Gondwanaland. Together these discoveries supported the existence of Pangea.

What are 3 pieces of evidence that Wegener used to support his hypothesis of continental drift?

Alfred Wegener in the first three decades of this century and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence: fit of the continents paleoclimate indicators truncated geologic features and fossils.

How does the fossil record support the theory of plate tectonics?

Evidence from fossils glaciers and complementary coastlines helps reveal how the plates once fit together. Fossils tell us when and where plants and animals once existed. … This distribution of fossils led to theories that the southern continents were once joined in a supercontinent called Gondwana.

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How does science prove that the continents are drifting?

Seafloor spreading is most dynamic along giant underwater mountain ranges known as mid-ocean ridges. As the seafloor grows wider the continents on opposite sides of the ridge move away from each other. … These processes were the main geologic forces behind what Wegener recognized as continental drift.

What do fossils do with Wegener’s theory?

Finding similarities among the fossil records on different continents provides evidence for the theory that current continents were once connected. … The result was that the ancient animals underwent divergent evolution they evolved into different creatures on each continent.

What fossil evidence supported Wegener’s hypothesis?

The fossils of the reptiles Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus and a fernlike plant called Glossopteris have been found on widely separated landmasses. This convinced Wegener that the continents had once been united. Wegener used evidence from climate change to further support his theory.

What does the fossil record tell scientists?

Fossils give us information about how animals and plants lived in the past. … By studying the fossil record we can tell how long life has existed on Earth and how different plants and animals are related to each other.

What did Pangaea mean?

all the Earth

Pangea also spelled Pangaea in early geologic time a supercontinent that incorporated almost all the landmasses on Earth. … Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia meaning “all the Earth.”

What are three pieces of evidence that support the theory of plate tectonics and Pangea?

There is variety of evidence that supports the claims that plate tectonics accounts for (1) the distribution of fossils on different continents (2) the occurrence of earthquakes and (3) continental and ocean floor features including mountains volcanoes faults and trenches.

What was the response to Wegener’s hypothesis?

The main problem with Wegener’s hypothesis of Continental Drift was the lack of a mechanism. He did not have an explanation for how the continents moved. His attempt to explain it using tides only made things worse. But both Galileo and Darwin had serious flaws in their theories when they were first presented.

Which two pieces of fossil evidence supports the idea of continental drift?

What are 2 important fossils used to support continental drift?
  • Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris were too heavy to be carried so far by wind.
  • Mesosaurus was a swimming reptile but could only swim in fresh water.
  • Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were land reptiles and were unable to swim.

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What were Alfred Wegener’s 5 pieces of evidence?

What were the 5 pieces of evidence that Wegener used to support his continental drift theory? 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.

How did the study of fossils provide support for the ideas behind the existence of Pangaea?

He called his hypothesis continental drift. How did the study of fossils provide support for the ideas behind the existence of Pangaea. … Scientists used this information and inferred that the continents were once joined in order to support the idea about the continental drift.

What helped scientists develop the theory of plate tectonics?

Evidence that led to the development of plate tectonic theory in the 1960s came primarily from new data from the sea floor including topography and the magnetism of rocks.

How do glaciers support the theory of plate tectonics?

The transition to plate tectonics started with the help of lubricating sediments scraped by glaciers from the slopes of Earth’s first continents according to new research. … As Earth cooled this shell began to fold and crack eventually creating Earth’s system of plate tectonics.

How can we relate fossils plate tectonics and mountains?

If this fossil is near a fault-line where two tectonic plates meet and the two plates move into each other the sheer force of millions of tonnes colliding could push the sediment above upwards (the force has to go somewhere) forming mountains.

Which explanation provide support for continental drift theory?

Which explanation provides support for continental drift theory? Coal fields match up across continents. What name did Wegener give to the single large landmass composed of all continents?

What evidence supports the idea that all the continents were once joined together?

In the early part of the 20th century scientists began to put together evidence that the continents could move around on Earth’s surface. 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.

How were the fossil symbols and mountain belts helpful in deciding where to move the continents?

Terms in this set (5)

How were the fossil symbols and mountain belts helpful in deciding where to move the continents? They made it a lot easier to see where to put the pieces. Otherwise it was really hard to fit them all together.

What do fossils reveal about ancient life?

Fossils are the remains or traces of ancient life that are usually buried in rocks. Examples include bones teeth shells leaf impressions nests and footprints. This evidence reveals what our planet was like long ago. Fossils also show how animals changed over time and how they are related to one another.

What does the fossil record of ancient life forms provide scientific evidence of?

Fossil records provide evidence for the evolution of organisms over time. By comparing the bone structures of the same species from differing eras paleontologist (scientists that study fossils) can provide evidence for the progression of that organism’s anatomical features over time.

How do fossils help scientists?

Fossils help researchers learn about plants and animals that existed long ago having since faced extinction or evolution to modern species. … Scientists can put together how the plant or animal looked based on its skeletal structure discover what the animals ate and where they lived and how they died.

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What is Pangaea short answer?

Pangaea. [ păn-jē′ə ] A supercontinent made up of all the world’s present landmasses joined together in the configuration they are thought to have had during the Permian and Triassic Periods.

What is Pangaea quizlet?

Pangaea. Pangaea was a hypothetical supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras forming approximately 300 million years ago. It began to break apart around 200 million years ago. Panthalassa. The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea.

How was Pangaea formed?

Pangea was formed through years and years of landmass formation and movement. … After a while the Angaran continent (near the North Pole) began to move south and merged with the northern part of the growing Euramerican continent forming the supercontinent that came to be known as Pangea.

How faults serve as evidence of tectonic plate movement?

A fault is formed in the Earth’s crust as a brittle response to stress. … Generally the movement of the tectonic plates provides the stress and rocks at the surface break in response to this.

What evidence supports plate tectonics quizlet?

Earthquakes and volcanic activity are also evidence of plate tectonics.

Was Wegener’s theory easy accepted?

Wegener published his theory in full in 1915 but his contemporaries mostly found it implausible. By 1930 it had been rejected by most geologists and it sank into obscurity for the next few decades.

What evidence did Wegener have what did the evidence about ancient climates indicate?

He set out to find evidence to support or refute this idea. Wegener’s evidence included the fit of the continents the distribution of ancient fossils the placement of similar rocks and indicators of ancient climate found in locations where those climates do not exist today.

Which source of evidence did Wegener use to support his theory of continental drift fossils magnetic fields satellite mapping warm equatorial climates?

Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The fossils of these organisms are found on lands that are now far apart. Wegener suggested that when the organisms were alive the lands were joined and the organisms were living side-by-side.

Which of the following discoveries is evidence supporting the idea of continental drift?

Q. Which of the following discoveries is evidence supporting the idea of continental drift? … The evidence supporting continental drift supports plate tectonics because plate tectonics is a modified expanded version of continental drift hypothesis.

How Do We Know Pangea Existed?

Animated Life: Pangea Wegener and Continental Drift — HHMI BioInteractive Video

What Did Pangaea Look like?

Pangea The History of the Continents

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