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Well it wasn't so much climate as the fossils that have been found. Fossils have been found in Antarctica of plants that only occur in tropical climates so at one point it must have had a tropical climate. That is the most dramatic example but there are more subtle ones that led him to believe that the continents, at one point, must have been in different locations on the Earth and then moved to where they currently are.

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Name of the scientist that came up with the continental drift hypothesis?

Did you mean Plate Tectonics Theory? - Plate Tectonics Theory is the combination of Continental Drift and Ocean/Sea Floor Spreading. BTW. The scientist who started it is Howard Baker continued by Alfred Wegener.


Why was wegener's continental drift hypothesis not widely accepted?

People thought he was crazy and not very smart but he proved them. He found a way.


According to Wegener and the hypothesis of continental drift Pangaea broke apart 200 million years ago. What was Pangaea?

Pangaea was the supercontinent into which all the land masses were concentrated until about 200 million years ago.


Explain who proposed the continental drift theory?

Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift at the beginning of the 20th century. His idea was that the Earth's continents were once joined together, but gradually moved apart over millions of years. The idea was rejected at first as he was a Meteorologist and not regarded as a proper scientist.


Why did most scientists reject wegeners hypothesis?

I've included 3 links on Alfred Wegener's life. He died at the age of 50 in 1930. His speciality was meteorology and well published in this area. The concept of continental drift began by the observation of the close fit between South America and Africa. Fossil evidence gave some support to the hypothesis. The concept of the continents drifting for hundreds of millions of years was criticized as too radical a departure and based on scant evidence. Also, in Wegener's hypothesis was the existence of Pangaea, where initially all continents were connected. George Gaylord Simpson was a well known scientist who was highly critical of continental drift. The view to the contrary was the continents had remained fixed and it was the plants and animals that had dispersed themselves on both continents. Per George Gaylord Simpson, his paper in 1939 seem to lay a solid foundation against continental drift. Antarctica as a faunal migration route. Proceedings, Sixth Pacific Congress, 1939, p. 755-768. First of Simpson's papers that directly addresses historical biogeography. He argues that land-bridges and continental drift are not necessary to explain disjunctive distributions. "In scientific theory the best-supported and most nearly self-sufficient hypothesis should be preferred and unnecessary additional hypotheses should be rejected or held in abeyance." (See "Evolution and Geography," 1953.) It is recognized today that Alfred Wegener was way ahead of his time.

Related Questions

Which type of evidence was not used by Alfred wegener to support his continental hypothesis?

Which type of evidence was NOT used by Alfred Wegener to support his continental drift hypothesis human remains


What types of evidence was used by Alfred Wegener to support his continental drift hypothesis?

human remains


Which type of evidence was not used by Alfred wegener to support his continental drift hypothesis?

Which type of evidence was NOT used by Alfred Wegener to support his continental drift hypothesis human remains


What words Describe the land features that provided evidence for Wegener's hypothesis?

Fossils, rock layers, and mountain ranges were some of the land features that provided evidence for Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift.


Why scientists rejected wegener's hypothesis of continental drift?

Scientist rejected Wegners hypothesis of continental drift at first because he did not have enogh evidence to support his theory. He failed to provide a suitable mechanism that could cause the continents to move.


Why was the hypothesis of continental drift rejected when it was proposed by wegener?

Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift was rejected because he lacked a plausible mechanism to explain how the continents moved. Additionally, the scientific community at the time did not have sufficient evidence to support the idea of continents drifting. It wasn't until the theory of plate tectonics emerged later, providing a mechanism and supporting evidence, that continental drift became widely accepted.


How did fossil provide evidence for Continental drift?

It is any trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock.Fossils provided evidence for continental drift by Wegener's hypothesis. Wegener studied land features, fossils, and evidence of climate change.


What was NOT used by Wegener to support his hypothesis of continental drift?

The ratio of the price of tea in China to the average density of the Moon. Among other things. You might want to be more specific in questions like this.


Who was the person that that made a hypothesis of continental drift?

It was Alfred Wegener but other scientists did not believe him but he found evidence


How did Wegener use four type of evidence to help support his hypothesis of continental drift?

Alfred Wegener used fossil evidence, geological evidence, paleoclimatic evidence, and the fit of continental coastlines to support his theory of continental drift. By comparing fossils, rock formations, climate patterns, and the alignment of continents like puzzle pieces, Wegener proposed that the continents were once connected in a single supercontinent called Pangaea that drifted apart over time.


What are the four forms of evidence Alfred wegener used to support his hypothesis he called continental drift?

Alfred Wegener used fossil evidence (matching plant and animal species across continents), geological evidence (similar rock formations and mountain ranges on different continents), climate evidence (glacial deposits and ancient climate patterns that suggested continents were once connected), and fit of continents (the way the continents seem to fit together like a puzzle) to support his hypothesis of continental drift.


Why was Alfred Wegener's proclamation known as a hypothesis and not a theory?

Alfred Wegener's proclamation of continental drift was initially considered a hypothesis because it lacked substantial empirical evidence to fully support it. A theory requires a well-established body of evidence and confirmed predictions, which were not present at the time of Wegener's proposal.