, volcanoes, and earthquakes, as well as how, long ago, similar animals could have lived at the same time on what are now widely separated continents. Perhaps initiated by heat building up underneath the vast continent, Pangaea began to rift, or split apart, around 200 million years ago. Oceans filled the areas between these new sub-continents. The landmasses continued to move apart, riding on separate plates, until they reached the positions they currently occupy. One theory is that convection within the Earth's mantle pushes the plates causing them to rift moving the continents and hitting other plates causing mountains to form and earthquakes to occur. Exploration of the ocean floor was the proof Wegener needed to prove his theory about plate tectonics and how it affected the movement of the continents.The original theory for the presence of organisms on two separate continents was huge land bridges that connected one continent to the other. These bridges disappeared after huge amounts of ice melted and filled the ocean with more water. The land bridges sunk under the water and the higher elevated areas are what can be seen today. Wegener concluded that the land bridges were not the cause for organisms to be present on two continents separated by an ocean. He believed that the Earth and all its continents were one large land mass at one time and he called it Pangaea. He concluded that the continents were all connected and that explained how fossilized organisms are present in Africa and South America. He explained the position of the continents current location from Pangaea with his theory of continental drift. Continental drift theory says the continents moved and the moving plates under the Earth folding up and causing cracks in the Earths crust formed mountains. Wegener knew his ideas were more believable than land bridges but he could not find proof to make his theory believable. Wegener displayed his content for th...
