Hundreds of million of years ago our planet looked a whole lot different, as the continents we know today were still touching before significant continental drift. Now, researchers say, they have found evidence of it yet again in the form of footprints.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hundreds of millions of years ago, our planet looked a whole lot different, as the land
00:08masses we know today were still touching, before significant continental drift.
00:12And researchers have found more evidence of it yet again.
00:15They have discovered two sets of fossilized dinosaur footprints, one in Cameroon in Central
00:19Africa and the other in Brazil in South America.
00:22They say this showcases the final land bridge between the two continents, where the prehistoric
00:27creatures could cross.
00:28The two continents, which were once called Gondwana, separated some 120 million years
00:32ago and are now over 3,700 miles away with an ocean between them.
00:37This infographic shows the gradual separation of Pangea, eventually culminating in the continental
00:42layout we know today.
00:43The geophysicists discovered some 260 footprints, coming from three distinct species of dinosaurs.
00:50With the researchers writing, we determined that in terms of age, these footprints were
00:54similar.
00:55In biological and plate tectonic contexts, they were also similar.
00:58In terms of their shapes, they are almost identical.
01:01The researchers say finding these footprints will allow them to better understand how the
01:05land masses separated.