Continental Drift

Continental Drift


Continental Drift is the principle that the continent landmasses have not remained in fixed positions, but have moved around the earth’s surface apparently independently. It is important in evolution because of the effects it has had on evolution and taxonomic diversity, brought about by the collision and moving apart of landmasses. The drifting apart of land masses brings about vicariance, where organisms are split up by the development of barriers, isolating descendent populations which then evolve to form new taxa.

Pre-continental drift theory, it was believed that species originated in a particular area, and spread out from there to colonise new habitats. However, it was noted that on a worldwide scale many taxa had obvious close relatives in regions that were geographically widely separated with natural barriers i.e.; oceans, deserts or mountain chains. Therefore, continental drift theory was able to explain many previously unanswered questions. An...