[Rockhounds] Ancient Fossil Discovery Shows How South America and Africa Drifted Apart

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A research team led by Southern Methodist University (SMU)
<https://scitechdaily.com/tag/southern-methodist-university/> has
discovered that ancient rocks and fossils of long-extinct marine reptiles
in Angola provide clear evidence of a crucial event in Earth’s history: the
separation of South America and Africa and the formation of the South
Atlantic Ocean.

With their easily visualized “jigsaw-puzzle fit,” it has long been known
that the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America
once nestled together in the supercontinent Gondwana — which broke off from
the larger landmass of Pangea.

The research team says the southern coast of Angola, where they dug up the
samples, arguably provides the most complete geological record ever
recorded on land of the two continents moving apart and the opening of the
South Atlantic Ocean. Rocks and fossils found date back from 130 million
years ago to 71 million years.

“There are places that you can go to in South America, for instance, where
you can see this part of the split or that part of it, but in Angola, it’s
all laid out in one place,” said Louis L. Jacobs, SMU professor emeritus of
Earth Sciences and president of ISEM. Jacobs is the lead author of a study
published in *The Geological Society, London, Special Publications*.

“Before this, there was not a place known to go and see the rocks on the
surface that really reflected the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean,
because they’re now in the ocean or eroded away,” Jacobs said.

https://scitechdaily.com/unparalleled-insight-ancient-fossil-discovery-shows-how-south-america-and-africa-drifted-apart/