EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -As Mesosaurus was a coastal animal, and therefore less likely to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, this distribution indicated that the two continents used to be joined together.

Detailed explanation-2: -It would have been physiologically impossible for Mesosaurus to swim between the continents. This suggests that South America and Africa were joined during the Early Permian.

Detailed explanation-3: -How did the Mesosaurus fossils on the South American Plate and African Plate get so far apart? Earth’s plates travel at a rate too slow to be experienced by humans. It takes a long time for Earth’s plates to travel great distances. The Mesosaurus fossils moved apart gradually over tens of millions of years.

Detailed explanation-4: -The discovery of those fossils in South America and Africa but nowhere else suggested that the continents were once connected by land. Because Mesosaurus wouldn’t be able to swim across, an ocean. Mesosaurus couldn’t have crossed an ocean between the two continents which suggests that the continents were connected.

Detailed explanation-5: -Their fossils are found in South America and southern Africa, which has been cited as powerful evidence for the former existence of Pangea, a supercontinent. Alfred Wegener, the man who first proposed Pangea, actually used mesosaurus and other fossils as evidence.