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.
What is the distribution of Mesosaurus?
These fossils were found in only two regions southern Africa and the southern part of South America. The shaded areas on the map show where fossils of Mesosaurus have been discovered. This distribution is a curious one—only two regions far from each other and separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
What might we infer about the environment in which Mesosaurus lived?
Mesosaurus lived in freshwater lakes and ponds. Elongated and slim it measured about 1 metre (3.3 feet) long. The skull and tail were both long and narrow and the animal probably undulated through the water as it fed on small crustaceans and other prey with its jaws which were full of long thin pointed teeth.
What is land like where Mesosaurus fossils are found?
Chapter 1: What is the land like where Mesosaurus fossils are found? Students figure out: The Mesosaurus fossils are found in hard solid rock on two different plates of Earth’s surface: the South American and African plates. Earth’s outer layer is made of hard solid rock and divided into sections called plates.
Why the fossils of Mesosaurus that once lived together are found in different locations on Earth now?
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.
How does the distribution of Mesosaurus fossils provide evidence for continental drift?
Fossils of similar types of plants and animals in rocks of a similar age have been found on the shores of different continents suggesting that the continents were once joined. For example fossils of Mesosaurus a freshwater reptile have been found both in Brazil and western Africa.
Where can you find the fossils of Mesosaurus?
Southern Africa
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.
What is the land like where Mesosaurus fossils are found quizlet?
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 fossils of speices that once lived together found in diffent locations on Earth now? The plates can move causing landmasses to move apart from each other.
What does the presence of Mesosaurus fossils tell about the initial location and positioning?
The Mesosaurus fossils tell us that South America Africa and Antarctica were once connected because it is impossible for these reptiles to swim over the vast oceans and move from one continent to another.
Why was the Mesosaurus a significant piece of evidence?
Why were the fossil remains of Mesosaurus?
Why were the fossil remains of Mesosaurus important to Alfred Wegener? They proved that Earth is composed of several rocky tectonic plates. They proved that Mesosaurus is extinct. They were the first fossils discovered in Africa and South America.
Why are Mesosaurus fossils found in South America?
How did the Mesosaurus fossils get so far apart?
How did the Mesosaurus fossils on the South American Plate and African Plate get so far apart? Earth’s plates travel at a rate too slow to be experienced by humans. It takes a long time for Earth’s plates to travel great distances. The Mesosaurus fossils moved apart gradually over tens of millions of years.
Why are the fossils of Mesosaurus found today in some rock layers in both South America and Africa?
Fossils of Mesosaurus are found in both South America and Africa because the continents were once connected as a single landmass millions of years ago and have moved great distances to their current location.
Which statement best explains why these freshwater Mesosaurus fossils are found today in some rock layers in both South America and Africa?
Which statement best explains why these freshwater fossils are found today in some rock layers in both South America & Africa? The remains of Megasaurus were carried across by predators.
What have scientist found out about how fossils are distributed that points to the theory of plate tectonics?
What could explain the distribution of similar fossils on separate continents?
Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth’s surface. Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener a geophysicist and meteorologist continental drift also explained why look-alike animal and plant fossils and similar rock formations are found on different continents.
How does coal distribution and glacial evidence support the theory of continental drift?
What do you observe with the distribution of fossils across different continents?
More Fossil Evidence
As well as linking Africa to South America the distribution of fossils suggests that other continents were once contiguous with each other. … This indicates that Glossopteris lived at a time when all of these continents were joined in a single super-continent which geologists refer to as Pangaea.
What is the meaning of Mesosaurus?
Definition of Mesosaurus
: a genus of small aquatic presumably fish-eating Permian reptiles of South America and southern Africa.
What type of rock is Mesosaurus?
I found a fossil of the Mesosaurus in hard solid rock.
In South America and Africa this kind of fossil can be found.
What kind of creature was the Mesosaurus?
Mesosaurus was a lizard-like animal that lived in South America and Africa during the Permian Period. Mesosaurus is considered one of the earliest aquatic relatives of reptiles and mammals [1].
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.
Why is the Jalisco block convergent?
Jalisco block (JB) is a portion of the complex convergent plate boundary involving the subduction of the Rivera and Cocos oceanic plates beneath the North American continental crust.
What is the theory of moving lithospheric plates?
The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth’s solid outer crust the lithosphere is separated into plates that move over the asthenosphere the molten upper portion of the mantle. Oceanic and continental plates come together spread apart and interact at boundaries all over the planet.
Fossils 101 | National Geographic
What are fossils and how are they formed | Learn about Fossils
Evidence for Continental Drift: Distribution of Fossils
Reconstructions of Pangaea