. Fig. I.âthe world IX THE CARBOXIFEROUS .\XD EOCENE PERIODS AXD OLD QU.\TERNARV ERA ACCORDING TO THE DISPLACEMENT THEORY. â V^Tiite denotes land, dots shallow water, cross-hatching deep sea. Actually, they do fit, and the correctness of our theory becomes the more probable as such coincidences mul- tiply themselves. The results of palaeontology have led to the assump- tion of the existence of former land bridges, between continents now separated b}- deep sea, over which an unrestricted interchange of fauna and flora took place. That such an interchange has at one time taken place is shown by
. Fig. I.âthe world IX THE CARBOXIFEROUS .\XD EOCENE PERIODS AXD OLD QU.\TERNARV ERA ACCORDING TO THE DISPLACEMENT THEORY. â V^Tiite denotes land, dots shallow water, cross-hatching deep sea. Actually, they do fit, and the correctness of our theory becomes the more probable as such coincidences mul- tiply themselves. The results of palaeontology have led to the assump- tion of the existence of former land bridges, between continents now separated b}- deep sea, over which an unrestricted interchange of fauna and flora took place. That such an interchange has at one time taken place is shown by the identity of fossil forms and the relation- ship of living forms. Now, these land bridges have been assumed exactly in those places where the theory put forward here indicates a former direct connection, as, for instance, between Brazil and Africa, between North America and Europe, between Madagascar and India, and in general between all the southern conti- nents such as South .\merica, South Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. It has hitherto been assumed that these land bridges were afterwards sub- merged, and now constitute the bottom of the deep sea. This conception is physically untenable, for the continents are floating in equilibrium on a heavier underlying layer, and could not sink by so great an* amount as fi\-e kilometres unless they were loaded down by superincumbent layers to at least an equal height. In addition, when all the necessary connecting land masses are reconstructed it is impossible to find room for the displaced masses of water. Further, the conti- nents now lie so far away from each other that, even if a former land connection existed, it would not account for the identity of their former fauna and flora. These difficulties disappear naturally when the displacement theory is assumed. From the mass of information to be derived from the geographical distribution of animals and plants we shall onl}' choose a single striking example :
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