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    Changing Continents - Tectonics - 2019

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    Mammoth Coffee
    The document summarizes how continental drift and tectonic plate movements have affected the distribution of organisms over time. It describes Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1912, which proposed that the continents were once joined together and have since drifted apart. It provides geological evidence that supports continental drift, such as matching fossil and rock patterns between continents. It also describes how continental drift influenced speciation, dispersal, and extinction events as landmasses divided and later rejoined, changing global climate and creating barriers and land bridges that isolated or connected organisms.

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    Changing Continents - Tectonics - 2019

    Uploaded by

    Mammoth Coffee
    8 views21 pages
    The document summarizes how continental drift and tectonic plate movements have affected the distribution of organisms over time. It describes Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1912, which proposed that the continents were once joined together and have since drifted apart. It provides geological evidence that supports continental drift, such as matching fossil and rock patterns between continents. It also describes how continental drift influenced speciation, dispersal, and extinction events as landmasses divided and later rejoined, changing global climate and creating barriers and land bridges that isolated or connected organisms.

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    Changing Continents_Tectonics_2019

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    Changing Continents_Tectonics_2019

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    The document summarizes how continental drift and tectonic plate movements have affected the distribution of organisms over time. It describes Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1912, which proposed that the continents were once joined together and have since drifted apart. It provides geological evidence that supports continental drift, such as matching fossil and rock patterns between continents. It also describes how continental drift influenced speciation, dispersal, and extinction events as landmasses divided and later rejoined, changing global climate and creating barriers and land bridges that isolated or connected organisms.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    8 views21 pages

    Changing Continents - Tectonics - 2019

    Uploaded by

    Mammoth Coffee
    The document summarizes how continental drift and tectonic plate movements have affected the distribution of organisms over time. It describes Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift from 1912, which proposed that the continents were once joined together and have since drifted apart. It provides geological evidence that supports continental drift, such as matching fossil and rock patterns between continents. It also describes how continental drift influenced speciation, dispersal, and extinction events as landmasses divided and later rejoined, changing global climate and creating barriers and land bridges that isolated or connected organisms.

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    CHANGING CONTINENTS AND

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

    1
    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

    2
    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”

    3
    PANGAEA ~ 250 mya
    (Permian)
    • Laurasia – northern part
    • Gondwanaland – southern part

    4
    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

    5
    Distribution of Fossils

    • the same fossilised animals and plants are found in


    different continents What are fossils?

    Distribution of Fossils

    6
    Fossils of Cynognathus
    were found in eastern
    South America &
    western Africa

    Distribution of Fossils

    7
    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

    8
    • 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

    9
    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

    10
    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

    11
    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.

    12
    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

    13
    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

    14
    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

    15
    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

    16
    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”

    17
    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

    18
    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

    19
    •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

    20
    • More
    diversification
    in S-Am
    • i.e. more wild
    dogs and cats
    in S-Am than
    in N-Am

    21

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