Question

What are some examples of evidence that support Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift ?

Answer 1

Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface.

Wegener believed that all the continents were once joined together in an "Urkontinent" before breaking up and drifting to their current positions. Many scientists disbelieved his theory, however, it did introduce the idea of moving continents to geoscience.  Hence,  it was determined decades later, due to his findings of rocks and fossils that spread throughout the continents, the past existence of a supercontinent had at one point joined all the world's landmasses as one. Pangaea was a supercontinent that formed roughly 200 to 250 million years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was responsible for the fossil and rock clues that led Wegener to his theory.

Wegener knew that fossil plants and animals such as mesosaurs, a freshwater reptiles that were found only South America and Africa during the Permian period, could be found on many continents. He also matched up rocks on either side of the Atlantic Ocean like puzzle pieces. For example, the Appalachian Mountains (United States) and Caledonian Mountains (Scotland) fit together, as do the Karroo strata in South Africa and Santa Catarina rocks in Brazil.