Glossopteris fossils were
critical in recognizing former connections between the various fragments of Gondwana
: South America, Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
What are the important features of a Glossopteris?
Glossopteris occurred in a variety of growth forms. Its most common fossil is that
of a tongue-shaped leaf with prominent midrib and reticulate venation
. Glossopteris leaves are commonly found in thick mats, and thus some authorities speculate that the plants were deciduous.
Why are Glossopteris fossils important?
Glossopteris fossils provide
important evidence for currently accepted distribution of continental plates in the Permian period that ended 250 million years ago
. … The mass extinction that marks the end of the Permian period is believed to have led to the disappearance of Glossopteris.
What best describes Glossopteris?
Glossopteris, which gives its name to the flora, is characterized by
a leaf with a fairly well defined midrib and a reticulate (net-like)
venation. G. indica is the last species referred to the genus and to the family Glossopteridales. It is known from the Triassic of India.
What does the presence of Glossopteris mean?
1 capitalized :
a genus of chiefly Permian and Triassic fossil ferns or fernlike plants characterized by thick entire fronds with anastomosing veins
.
What are four pieces of evidence used by Alfred?
Alfred Wegener, in the first three decades of this century, and DuToit in the 1920s and 1930s gathered evidence that the continents had moved. They based their idea of continental drift on several lines of evidence:
fit of the continents, paleoclimate indicators, truncated geologic features, and fossils
.
Are Cycadophyta gymnosperms?
Cycads are
gymnosperms
(naked seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements.
Where are Glossopteris fossils found?
The Glossopteris fossil is found in
Australia, Antarctica, India, South Africa, and South America
—all the southern continents. Now, the Glossopteris seed is known to be large and bulky and therefore could not have drifted or flown across the oceans to a separate continent.
What can plant fossils tell us?
Some animals and plant are only known to us as fossils. By studying the fossil record we can
tell how long life has existed on Earth
, and how different plants and animals are related to each other. Often we can work out how and where they lived, and use this information to find out about ancient environments.
What are the types of fossils?
- Body Fossils.
- Molecular Fossils.
- Trace Fossils.
- Carbon Fossils.
- Pseudofossils.
What do the Glossopteris fossils tell us?
The glossopteris fossils reflects the evidence of
separation of continents like southern Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica
which was largely separated by huge and wide ocean which was larlier connected with each other.
What was the response to Wegener's hypothesis?
The main problem with Wegener's hypothesis of Continental Drift was
the lack of a mechanism
. He did not have an explanation for how the continents moved. His attempt to explain it using tides only made things worse. But both Galileo and Darwin had serious flaws in their theories when they were first presented.
What climate does Glossopteris?
It grew in a
cold, wet climate
, while the flora of North America and Europe existed under warm conditions. Plants with elongate, tongue-shaped leaves dominated the southern flora, with the genera Glossopteris and Gangamopteris being among the best known.
What does the presence of Glossopteris flora suggest about the locations of the continents in the past?
Glossopteris fossils have been found in Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica. The occurrence of Glossopteris on landmasses that are now separated by oceans indicates
that Pangaea once existed
. Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus fossils have been found in places now separated by oceans.
What are 5 pieces of evidence that support continental drift?
The evidence for continental drift included
the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones
.
Are Glossopteris extinct?
History. The Glossopteridales arose in the Southern Hemisphere around the beginning of the Permian Period (298.9 million years ago), but
became extinct during the end-Permian (Changhsingian) mass extinction
.
