Continental Drift Theory: Alfred Wegener

The first, would be Land features. Alfred Wegener saw how the coal fields in North America and Europe lined up, he also realized that mountain ranges in North America and Africa lined up. The second, evidence he used were the fossils. There were three types of fossils he found the first was the glossopteris a fern like plant found in Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica. The second and third were the Mesosaurus and the Lystrosaurus fossils, they were freshwater reptile fossils on continents separated by oceans. The third evidence Alfred Wegener used was, the climate zones. Alfred Wegener looked at the past of the climates and he found scratches in rocks from glaciers in South Africa. Those were the three main evidences Alfred Wegener used to prove Continental Drift

Volcanic and Seismic events are major pieces of evidence towards proving that plate tectonics theory is valid (40 marks)

The theory of plate tectonics was first developed by Alfred Wegener. He concluded that the continents seem to have a similar shape and could potentially fit together. This suggested that they were at one time joined together as part of 2 super continents called Gondwanaland and Laurasia was in the north. This theory was said to be proven by the discovery of fossilised remains of a mesosaurus that were found on the coasts of Brazil and Gabon. Sea floor spreading is another theory that supports the idea of plate tectonics; this theory discovered that rock is being formed under the ocean as a new sea floor. Sea floor spreading was shown in the Atlantic, where it is believed the Eurasian and North American plates are moving apart on a

Although the Ediacaran period was well before the first appearance of dinosaurs it shows that there were fossils many years ago. When dinosaurs first appeared things had changed there was still shallow water which meant that bones could be fossilized.

Synopsis. The Defence of Duffer’s Drift is a book in which the author, Captain Swinton , has six dreams in succession. Captain Swinton drempt that Lieutenant Backsight Forethought must defend a drift in South Africa against the enemy Boer at all cost. In each dream he overlooks or makes a mistake, which is catastrophic and costs the battle and the lives of his men. He learns from each dream the mistakes he made and carries on from dream to dream the general lesson previously learnt. In total he carries over (22 lessons) which ultimately brings him success and victory in the end.

Sedimentary rocks interpret dinosaur habitats through encased environmental structures of the past. Through sedimentary rocks, paleoecologists’ can examine the arranged formation of sedimentary structures to specify what type of environment the dinosaurs’ lived in. An example of a specific sedimentary rock structure can be seen through formed weathering and ripple marks by how wind and sand formed distinct patterns in the past layered sediment. These arrangements provide interpretations on the structure of the sediment and the habitat of encased fossils, through modern day comparisons

Much proof of the evolution of organisms and change in the environment overall is shown through fossils. Some of the most unusual fossils found in Australia were disovered at Riversleigh. Animals such as the Lungfish show a strong development in animals as adaptations are cleary seen through, for example, the fact the the lungfish has developed, working lungs that it can us to breathe with on land unlike any other fish. The lungfish shows the tranformation of fish swimming only being ablt to live in water to fish adapting and being able to live on land whilst their body has become dry in the dry season. It shows the evolution from sealife to land life and shows inbetweens for the evolution of the creatures. There are also records of many ancestors of animals that walk the earth today. examples include primative koalas and wombats, a range of ancestral thylacines and platypus, aswe as rodents whch show the evolution of placental mammals. Many of these organisms evolved from what they were and adapted as the climate changed to suit more and became the animals we see today. many similar types of flora and fauna fossils as well as the formation of rocks are similar so due to the continental drift. the continental drift is the drifting apart of all continents from one full land mass into the locations they are currently in. all landmasses were original joined as one big land mass caled 'Pangaea', because all organisms existed on a single land mass aswell, similar fossils can be found, as can rock formations. some evidence of continental drift was that a man named Alfred Wegener went out and matched up the same rock ike a puzzle with different pieces from different parts of the world and they

The reading passage proposes three theories which support the idea that a dinosaur which is called edmontosaurus survived in the winter by migrating to the south, the more hospitable region than the extremely cold in the North Slope. However, the professor in the listening respectively contradicts each theory in the reading passage by using strong evidence as support.

In a study published in Cretaceous Research and conducted in October 2012 by Anthony R. Fiorillo, Thomas L. Adams and Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, evidence of dinosaurs was based on the finding of an unnamed nonmarine sedimentary package of rocks. Found in the Wrangellia Terrane and considered to be Cretaceous age, the rocks are light colored with medium grey shales and indicate a bounty of horsetails, ferns and gymnosperm wood.

Continental drift was a theory offered by Alfred Wegener in 1912 that hypothesized that all the continents at one time fit together as one land mass. Wegener, explained that the ends of each continent could fit together like a puzzle and that over time the continents drifted apart. "The model explained why the same types of fossils occur in sedimentary rock on both sides of the vast Atlantic Ocean" (Star, 2008, pg. 250), in other words allopatric speciation. Wegener's theory did not have a supporting geological mechanism. Many years later and advances in technology brought about the plate tectonics theory. Essentially it says:

Questions were raised when rocks were found on the surface of the Earth that had manetization the did not corralate to the location that it was found. Also, Harry Hess suggested that the continents could have drifted and still were because the sea floor was moving much like a conveyor. (Bugielski, 1999).

The author and his colleagues chose to focus on 375 million year old rocks in their search for fossils because amphibians that look dissimilar to fish were discovered in 365 million year old rocks, while fish without amphibian characteristics were discovered in 385 million year old rocks. Thus, it is possible that the evolutionary intermediary, or the “missing link” between fish and amphibians, would be discovered in 375 million year old rocks, between the two time periods. The rocks examined were sedimentary in composition, as the gradual and relatively gentle formation of sedimentary rock under conditions of mild pressure and low heat are conducive to the fossilization of animal remains. Sedimentary rock is also often formed in rivers and seas, where animals are likely to live. This site provides a resource that describes means by which fossils are formed and how the fossil record may be interpreted, and shows some examples of fossils demonstrating evolution through geological periods: http://www.fossilmuseum.net/fossilrecord.htm. In 2004, Shubin and his colleagues were looking for fossils on Ellesmere Island, in northern Canada. This location was chosen because of its lack of human development, as well as of obstructing natural formations and life forms such as trees, which

Wegener provided numerous explanations and documentation in support of his continental drift theory. He provided two fossils as evidence. Glossopteris because it had been found on several continents that were widely separated. Glossopteris, also known as a seed fern fossil, was too large to be transported by the wind. The other was Mesosaurus which was a small aquatic freshwater reptile (Lutgens & Tarbuck, 2014, p. 154). Other scientists believed this was possible because land bridges had once existed or explained it away as drafting. Wegener most likely did not offer fossil sharks or jellyfish as evidence due to the fact that these fish inhabit all major oceans on the planet.

11,700 years ago the geological epoch the Holocene was thought to of began following the Pleistocene epoch, together these time periods make up the Quaternary period. The Holocene has been described as being relatively warm and with a fairly stable climate. Not only this, but it is thought to coincide with the start of agriculture as human populations rose throughout the Holocene technology became more sophisticated aiding the rise of agriculture (Holden, 2012). The early anthropogenic hypothesis was published in 2003 by Professor W.F. Ruddiman, this was a three part hypothesis in which Ruddiman proposed humans reversed natural decreases in CO2 values within the atmosphere by deforestation. That they reversed natural methane decreases after 5,000 years by irrigating rice, they also caused a warming sufficient to prevent a new glaciation within the last several thousand years and during the Holocene (Ruddiman 2005). This hypothesis has attracted a lot of attention with many people both supporting it and criticising it. Throughout this essay I will be exploring the many arguments for and against the early anthropogenic hypothesis and stating whether or not human kind could have prevented the start of an ice age during the Holocene.

These techniques led to the discovery of the boundary between the two eras. A single thin layer of clay found within predominantly limestone rocks established this. By comparing the marine life found in, above, and below the clay, the marine life, like the dinosaurs, had been terribly affected by the extinction event. The percentage of life in the upper layers was dramatically lower than that in the lower. This was far more compelling than what was suggested by dinosaur’s fossils.