Evidence from fossils

Presentation by: Aarav R, Laxman, Tirth, Kiaan, Kshitij, and Hariaksh

  Antarctica used to be part of the supercontinent Gondwana.
When animal life first began on Earth, initially in the marine
environment, Antarctica lay along what is now Australia’s
southern margin.

Antarctica’s  Australia and Antarctica were rotated 90° from where they are
today. The equator ran though both continents. About 130
original million years ago, Gondwana began to disintegrate.

position
 About 130 million years ago, Gondwana began to disintegrate.
India, South America and Africa broke away. The links between
Australia and Antarctica remained until about 55 million years
ago. Australia began moving north quickly, and Antarctica was
isolated for the first time since animals evolved.
  Robert Falcon Scott was the first British explorer to reach the
South Pole and explore Antarctica extensively by land in the
early 1900s.
 Scott set up his winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, on Ross
Island, in February 1902.

Robert Falcon  Scott finally achieved his dream and reached the South Pole on
17- 18 January 1912.
Scott  The explorer died in March 1912 near the Ross Ice Shelf.
 A fossil was found alongside Scott’s body. The fossil was the
plant Glossopteris indica, and extinct beech-like tree from 250
million years ago.
  In the early 1900s, a scientist named Alfred Wegener saw that
Africa and South America look as if they fit together. He
wondered if they once had been joined together and are now
moving apart.
 He noticed there are similar rocks at the edges of the continents,
Africa and South America, where they may have been joined.
 He observed that scientists had found fossils of the same reptile
Alfred Wegener Mesosaurus which lives in shallow waters in the continents
Africa and South America.
 Wegener made a hypothesis. He said the continents were once a
single piece of land. The land broke up. The pieces drifted apart,
making continents.
 At 1912, Wegener sent his hypothesis to other scientists.He was
rejected first, but after facing many difficulties, he persuaded
them to believe him.