How did Wegener account for the existence of glaciers in the southern landmasses while at the same time areas in North America Europe and Siberia supported lush tropical swamps?

Answer 1

Wegener explained the existence of glaciers in the southern land masses by stating that they were what pushed apart the the land masses and formed the continents. They then melted to help form the oceans.

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Answer 2

Wegener rejected this explanation, because during the late Paleozoic, large swamps existed in the Northern Hem. He believed that a better explanation for the paleoclamatic regimes he observed is provided by fitting together the landmasses as a supercontinent, with South Africa centered over the South Pole. This would account for the conditions necessary to generate extensive expanses of glacial ice over much of the Southern Hem.