• Question: Is it possible if fossils and evolution back up Alfred Wegner's tectonic plate theory

    Asked by brotherblood1235 to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      They do indeed! Although my knowledge of this is a bit sketchy, fossils from different continents can be very similar because they were once joined. Also, evolution of for example marsupials in australia show it has been isolated for a long time, but it shares fossils with other areas of the world.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Steven is correct. There are lots of cases where you find animals that are closely related but on different continental plates. Marsupials is a great one, or lungfishes, or monotremes. They all evolved in a huge continent with the beautiful name Gondwana. Gondwana later broke up by tectonic plate drift into South America and Australia, taking with them some marsupials/monotremes/lungfish. This is why you get these groups in all three continents today.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Steven and Vera. A very good question and this forms part of the evidence to show why evolution is a highly regarded theory in science!

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      It’s also interesting that the tectonic plate theory was considered controversial for a while, like evolution by natural selection, before becoming accepted by the scientific mainstream. The two theories support each other beautifully.

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