Some of earth's continents look like they'd fit really well together as a puzzle. Africa could nestle pretty well into the arcs formed by North & South America.
It's hypothesized/theorized that once upon a time, all of the continents made up one solid land, all connected together.
What is your opinion on the matter?
I was just reading in a history book that evidence of homonids (early humans) has been found in the Eastern Hemisphere, but not in the Western Hemisphere. If this is indeed true, this tells me that if the concept of Pangaea is factual, it must have been long before homonids existed. Or this tells me that Pangaea is a fun idea, but not true.
It's hypothesized/theorized that once upon a time, all of the continents made up one solid land, all connected together.
What is your opinion on the matter?
I was just reading in a history book that evidence of homonids (early humans) has been found in the Eastern Hemisphere, but not in the Western Hemisphere. If this is indeed true, this tells me that if the concept of Pangaea is factual, it must have been long before homonids existed. Or this tells me that Pangaea is a fun idea, but not true.
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That sounds like a directly typed homework question... but I like to help anyway.
My opinion? Pangaea existed, as did a number of supercontinents that formed and broke through plate tectonics. The science? Same thing. Rock and fossil distribution is indirect proof that it existed.
Go back to the beginning of the Paleozoic (570 million years ago). You have a giant continent called Gondwana (sometimes Gondwanaland) floating around (itself a fragment of an earlier, even bigger supercontinent called Nena) with a bunch of smaller continents separate. Fast forward. Over the course of about 250 million years (about 350 million years ago), the separate, smaller continents weld themselves together into a giant continent called Laurasia. Move forward another 65 million years or so (280 million years ago), and the processes of plate tectonics fuse Laurasia and Gondwana into Pangaea.
This puts you at the edge of the Carboniferous and Permian eras, which were just abundant with life and rock formation. This leaves you with a great deal of evidence:
(1) The "fit" of continents.
(2) Fossil distribution indicating one place split into pieces.
(3) Stratigraphic column distribution (rock sequences) found identical across great distances indicating one place split into pieces.
My opinion? Pangaea existed, as did a number of supercontinents that formed and broke through plate tectonics. The science? Same thing. Rock and fossil distribution is indirect proof that it existed.
Go back to the beginning of the Paleozoic (570 million years ago). You have a giant continent called Gondwana (sometimes Gondwanaland) floating around (itself a fragment of an earlier, even bigger supercontinent called Nena) with a bunch of smaller continents separate. Fast forward. Over the course of about 250 million years (about 350 million years ago), the separate, smaller continents weld themselves together into a giant continent called Laurasia. Move forward another 65 million years or so (280 million years ago), and the processes of plate tectonics fuse Laurasia and Gondwana into Pangaea.
This puts you at the edge of the Carboniferous and Permian eras, which were just abundant with life and rock formation. This leaves you with a great deal of evidence:
(1) The "fit" of continents.
(2) Fossil distribution indicating one place split into pieces.
(3) Stratigraphic column distribution (rock sequences) found identical across great distances indicating one place split into pieces.
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