THE MYSTERY OF THE FAR-FLUNG FOSSILS
Investigating Plate Tectonics
NAME:_________________________________________
Earth Science (Veilleux)
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Purpose: To go on a fossil-collecting expedition to the continents of South America, Africa, Australia,
Antarctica, and the sub-continent of India in order to emulate evidence related to the splitting of the
super continent Pangaea.
Introduction: Alfred Wegener, a German geologist and meteorologist proposed the theory of
continental drift in 1915. He believed that the Earth's continental crust slowly drifted and plowed
through the oceanic crust (this is now known to be inaccurate). The fossil record supports the idea
that the continents have moved, however, it was not until the formation of theory of plate tectonics,
that a true mechanism for the movement of the continents was discovered (www.enchantedlearning).
Wegener hypothesized that there was a gigantic supercontinent 200 million years ago, which he
named Pangaea, meaning "All-earth". During the Jurassic period, Pangaea started to break up into
two smaller supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwanaland. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the
continents were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents
(www.enchantedlearning). Fossils can be seen in sedimentary rocks of each past age. In South America you will collect fossils in
Brazil. You will explore the coal fields of Gondwana in southern India. Some of your African rocks will be in a
gorge near Capetown. In Australia you'll look at rocks on the southern coast. Your fossils of Antarctica will occur
mostly beneath glacial ice in the mountains on the western shores. You will discover some of the important
organisms that lived on the continents in different time periods (Appendix 1, Fossil Catalog).
Procedure:
1) Detach the data sheet from the back of this packet.
2) Imagine that the five continents are each represented by a stack of sedimentary rocks on five tables around
the room. The continents are in their natural geographical shape and their sizes are proportional.
3) Travel between the 5 continents (5 tables) by plane and by boat, since each continent is now separated from
the others by oceans and seas.
4) Look for fossils in sedimentary rocks of 4 ages:
a) The blue, top layer represents modern times; the pictures of the modern animals you see are native
to the continent.
The three lower layers depict sedimentary rocks of three past ages:
a) Green Rocks -Late in the Age of Dinosaurs 100 million years ago*
b) Yellow Rocks -Early in the Age of Reptiles 200 mya
c) Red Rocks -The Coal Age
300 my a
5) Use the Fossil Catalog to help identify the names of the plants and animals.
6) Read about the plants and animals before you record them.
7) Record on your data sheet (Table 1) the names of the fossils you find in the rocks on each continent for the
past ages and present day continents.
8) Analyze your data in the analysis section – Answer questions 1-3. When you have completed those 3
questions please raise your hand. I will check with you to see if you understand your analysis (C level).
9) Cut out the 5 continents from the back page. Complete question #4 by tracing the outline of the continents
where they belong for each time period.
10) Answer questions #5 and 6, then raise your hand. I will check with you to see if you understand your analysis
(B level).
11) Answer questions #7-10 (A level).
12) Whatever you do not finish in class you need to finish for HW.
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Results (C level - Applying)
Directions: Now that the expedition is over make sense of your data. Be sure to clearly
record all your data in well-written complete sentences.
1. What continents had similar fossils based on your data collected from the 300
million year old red rocks?
2. From this fossil evidence, which continents seem to have been connected 300 million
years ago?
3. What continents had similar fossils based on your data collected from the 200
million year old Yellow rocks? Be sure to note any difference you noted?
4. From this fossil evidence, which continents seem to have been connected 200 million
years ago and which appear that they may be separating?
5. Compare and contrast the similarities and differences the continents fossil record
showed in the 100 million year old green rocks?
6. From this fossil evidence which continents seem to have been connected 100 million
years ago?
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7. Based on your data analysis, arrange the continents according to where you think
they were situated during each of the three past ages. Arrange or draw them also
as they appear in the present.
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(B – Level – Analyzing)
8. Describe the data trends what appears to have happened to the continents over the
past 300 million years?
9. Look at the glacial scrapings on the continents shown in the above diagram. The black arrows
represent the marks found on 300 million year old rocks indicating which way they glaciers were
moving. Just looking at the arrows where would it appear the glaciers on south-eastern South
America came from?
10. If glaciers can’t form in the ocean then on what continent did they probably form?
11. Why would the geologist who first found the glacial grooves in southern India be puzzled by
this discovery?
12. How could the idea of continental drift explain matching patterns of 300 million year old
glacial grooves on four separate southern continents?
13. Make an X on the map above to mark the probable spreading center of the glaciers 300
million years ago? Also make arrows to show the movement of glaciers outward from this
location. (Hint: Large glaciers tend to move out and away from their center, like a spreading mass of slime.)
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Conclusion (A level – Analyzing and Evaluating)
Two species of living earthworms in the soils of southern South America and Africa
were found to be very closely related (members of the same genus). Also, two species of
living earthworms in soils of southern India and southern Australia were found to be
very closely related (members of the same genus).
14. How was the theory of continental drift strengthened by discoveries of closely
related earthworms on widely separated continents?
Examine the mammals pictured on the continents of South America, Africa, India, and
Australia. These living animals are native on their continents. Each eats insects, and is a
major ant/termite eater among all the mammals there. Each species belongs to a
different order of mammals. These four mammals are very distantly related, even
though each is highly specialized for eating ants and/or termites.
15. Explain in terms of continental drift and Darwin’s evolution through natural
selection, how four very different kinds of ant/termite eaters could occur in India,
Africa, South America, and Australia. (Remember, the Age of Mammals began on earth after Dinosaurs
became extinct about 65 million years ago.)
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Conclusion Continued (A level – Remembering, Applying, and Evaluating)
16. Describe as many pieces of evidence as you can to support the theory of continental drift.
17. Why do you think it is so difficult for some people to accept the idea of continental
drift?
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!
Table 1. Earth Science Continental Drift Project data sheet.
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Appendix 1. Fossil Catalog
FOSSIL CATALOG
Early Glossopteris
Flora
A group of 27 species
of plants found in coal.
Glossopteris is the genus
name of one common seed
fern.
Lystosaurus
A plant-eating mammal-like
reptile with beak-like jaws
and a body about one meter
long.
Mesosaurus
A fish-eating, river-living
reptile about 65 cm long.
Later Glossopteris
Flora
Different but related
species of the early
Glossopteris flora.
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Dicroidium
Flora
A group of plants adapted
to warmer conditions than
Glossopteris flora, named
after a genus of gymnosperms.
Minmi
A plant-eating, armored dinosaur
built like a living battle tank, about
two meters long.
Kentrosaurus
A plant-eating, plated
dinosaur about five
meters long.
Brachyopodosaurus
A plant-eating dinosaur
about 5 meters long and
covered with bands of bony nodules.
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Austrosaurus
The “southern lizard”, a
plant-eating dinosaur,
about 15 meters long.
Secernosaurus
A small duckbill dinosaur
about three meters long.
Modern Ant and Termite Eating Mammals
(Notice their pointed snouts and claws)
Giant Anteater
Myrmecophage tridactyla
Order: Edentata
Pangolin
Manis crassicaudata
Order: Pholidota
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Echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
Order: Monotremata
Aardvark
Orycteropus afer
Order: Tubulidentata
Earthworms
Genus #1
species #1
Genus #1
species #2
Genus #2
species #1
Genus #2
species #2
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Cut out these four sets of outlines of the five continents of the southern hemisphere.
Trace the cutouts on the southern hemisphere map views found on
as they would have occurred during that period of Earth History. Use your information
from your analysis and the data from Table 1 to place your continents correctly. You
will be scored for accuracy in this section! You can look on page 250 in your textbook to
get a more accurate picture of the tilt of the continents.
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