Who would have thought a million years ago all the earths land mass was one. This large land mass was known as Pangea. Over many years the land mass would eventually break up into two sub continents, then the seven continents everyone knows about. Continental Drifting is “The movement of the Earth’s crust by plate tectonics resulting in the movement of continents with respect to one another”. (Mader,Windelspecht,2012).
Good evidence that this occurred is fossils. We have been finding fossils of animals and plants in North America that you would only see in another foreign country. This also helps scientist understand evolution of animals and plants better. Evolution is the “Genetic change in a species overtime resulting in the development of genetic and phenotypic differences that are the basis of natural selection; descent of organisms from a common ancestor”.(Mader,Windelspecht,2012). Continental drift affected the evolution of animals, plants and the climate.…show more content… (Effects of Continental Drift). Gondwanaland one of the two Subcontinents was home to many mammals. It eventually split into Australia and South America.( Speciation). Many of the animals would thrive in Australia and many would die in South America. The mammals that would survive were known as Marsupial. These animals had the ability to raise their young in a nutrient, warm pouch. (Speciation). Examples of these animals were Kangaroos, Wallabies, Tasmanian devil and the Opossum. The Opossum is only Marsupial to survive in South America. (Speciation). Natural Selection plays a big part in this because the animals that couldn’t adapt would die and the stronger ones would
