CHANGING CONTINENTS AND

CLIMATE
•Past historical events
•Continental drift: Tectonics, Geologic
•Effects on distribution of organisms

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 Tectonics
• the field of geology that studies the
movements of earth crust
• these movements are called continental drift
• tectonics is important in biogeography,
because species and whole floras and faunas
are broken up and reunited

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The Theory of Continental Drift
• Proposed in 1912 by
German geographer
Alfred Wegener
(1880-1930)
• Continents were once
connected
• The continents
gradually drifted apart
to where they are
today Published the book “The Origins of
the Continents and the Oceans” 1915

Pangaea/Pangea

250 million years ago, all of the continents were

combined into one super-continent called
“Pangaea” – “All-earth”

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 PANGAEA ~ 250 mya
(Permian)
• Laurasia – northern part
• Gondwanaland – southern part

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Support for Wegener
“Puzzle Pieces”
• The continents fit together on
their continental shelves
(~1800m below sea level), like a
puzzle
• i.e. on either side of the Atlantic

Support for Wegener

• Similar plants species, genera, families
– On different continents
– Islands of southern hemisphere

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 Distribution of Fossils

• the same fossilised animals and plants are found in

different continents What are fossils?

Distribution of Fossils

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Fossils of Cynognathus
were found in eastern
South America &
western Africa

Distribution of Fossils

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 Sequence of Rocks
• Same rock patterns found in South America,
India, Africa, Antarctica and Australia

consists of glacial deposits called tillites, followed

by sandstones and finally coal measures, typical of
warm, moist climates

Sequence of
Rocks

Similar age and type of rocks - Caledonian mountain range

in northern Europe and the Appalachian Mountains in eastern
North America

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• mountain chains are found where continents may
have collided, e.g., the Himalaya’s between India
and mainland Asia

Ancient Climates
• Tropical plant fossils (in the
form of coal deposits) found
in Antarctica
• Previously must have been
situated closer to the
equator, in a more
temperate climate

Glossopteris
plant

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 Ancient Climates

Glacial Striations
• Rocks in India and Africa, both in extremely warm climates
today, have distinct characteristics that could only have
been formed by the presence of glaciers

• Glaciation in Africa, South America, India, and

Australia during the same time

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 Support for Wegener
• Unfortunately,
???
Wegener did not
have an explanation
for why or how the
continents would
move around, so his
theory was not
accepted

Problems With The Theory

• No mechanism for movement of

continents
• Wind and currents could possibly move
fossils
• Theory was not accepted by scientists

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 Support for Wegener

• In 1929, British
geologist Arthur
Holmes suggested
that the earth mantle
moves around
because of
convection currents,
just like in a pan of
water over a fire.

Wegener’s theory accepted!

• Holmes’ idea of mantle convection and
Wegener’s theory of continental drift were
only accepted in the late 1960s
• At that time, many geological discoveries
were made: the mid-oceanic ridges, island
arcs associated with deep oceanic
trenches, etc.

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 Mid-oceanic ridges A better fit on continents margin

• Interconnected system of undersea volcanoes = underwater

mountain range, formed by plate tectonics
• Continuous 60,000 km seam that encircles Earth and bisects its
oceans
• Along the ridges, liquid magma appears, hardens, and new earth
crust is formed

Mid-oceanic ridges
• also associated with “seafloor spreading”
• older crust is pushed to the sides
• Oceanic divergence

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Paleomagnetism
study of the ancient magnetic field of both rocks and the Earth as a whole

Magnetic pole reversals

‘polar wandering’
• the earth magnetic north and
south pole reverse every few
thousand years
• the pattern of reversals is laid
down in the orientation of
magnetite crystals/minerals

Magnetic minerals along the eastern coast of South

America very closely matches that of similar
minerals on the western coast of Africa

Paleomagnetism
Apparent Polar Wandering
•Distinct patterns of stripes can be seen in
the magnetism of rocks on either side of the
ridges

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 Oceanic trenches
•oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow
topographic depressions of the sea floor
•they are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor

Oceanic trenches

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 Oceanic trenches and island arcs

• deep trenches (>10

km deep)
• island arcs next to it
• these are
“subduction zones”
• here, old earth crust
is “recycled”

Mid-oceanic ridges

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 Geologic evidence to support
Continental Drift theory
• Continents are • Oceans are much
less dense than younger than the
rock in ocean continents
• Paleomagnetic • Age of oceanic
evidence – crust increases
continents have outward from mid-
drifted significant oceanic ridges
distance during
geologic time

Tectonic history
• several times, continents have drifted apart
and reunited again in “supercontinents”
• India+Australia+Antarctica+Africa+S-Am:
“Gondwanaland”
• N-Am+Europe+Asia: “Laurasia”
• All continents together: “Pangaea/Pangea”

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 Biogeographical effects of
tectonics/continental drift
• biotas are broken up: speciation, species
diversify
• biotas are reunited: dispersal and
extinction
• dispersal barriers are created: speciation,
species diversify
• island arcs are created: dispersal

History of the Earth - Continental drift --> positions

of continents change over geologic time – create
barriers – isolate, speciation/extinction or
landbridges - dispersal

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example: Nothofagus, the southern beech tree

Nothofagus cunnighamii Native Tasmania,

Australia

Nothofagus has a
Gondwanaland distribution:
•occurs only in Australia, S-
Am, and (as fossils)
in Antarctica
• Its seeds cannot survive in
seawater. It was widespread on
Gondwanaland before this
supercontinent broke up. Nothofagus betuloides, Patagonia, Chile

•example: GAFI: the Great American

Faunal Interchange
• S-Am and N-Am had not
been connected since 90
MYA
• 3 MYA, the Isthmus of
Panama was formed
• marsupials and other
Isthmus of “primitive” mammals from
Panama
Gondwanaland moved into
N-Am
• “modern” mammals from N-
Am moved into S-Am

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 •moving from South to North:
Armadillos
Dasypus novemcinctus

Erethizon dorsatum - largest

surviving S-Am migrant to
temperate N-Am

Opossums (marsupial)
Didelphis virginiana

•moving from North to South:

Tapirus bairdii Camels
largest surviving
N-Am migrant,
extinct in N-Am

Camelids Vicugna vicugna

are also
extinct in N-
Am

large cats (jaguar) llama

- rabbits, mice, foxes, bears, raccoons, weasels,

cats & deer

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• More
diversification
in S-Am
• i.e. more wild
dogs and cats
in S-Am than
in N-Am

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