The idea that the past geography of Earth was different from today is not new. The earliest maps showing the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa probably provided people with the first evidence that continents may have once been joined together, then broken apart and moved to their present positions.

During the late nineteenth century, Austrian geologist Eduard Suess noted the similarities between the Late Paleozoic plant fossils of India, Australia, South Africa, and South America. The plant fossils comprise a unique group of plants that occurs in coal layers just above the glacial deposits on these southern continents. In this book The Face of the Earth (1885), he proposed the name “Gondwanaland” (called Gondwana here) for a supercontinent composed of the aforementioned southern landmasses. Suess thought these southern continents were connected by land bridges over which plants and animals migrated. Thus, in his view, the similarities of fossils on these continents were due to the appearance and disappearance of the connecting land bridges.

The American geologist Frank Taylor published a pamphlet in 1910 presenting his own theory of continental drift. He explained the formation of mountain ranges as a result of the lateral movements of continents. He also envisioned the present-day continents as parts of larger polar continents that eventually broke apart and migrated toward equator after Earth’s rotation was supposedly slowed by gigantic tidal forces. According to Taylor, these tidal forces were generated when Earth’s gravity captured the Moon about 100 million years ago. Although we know that Taylor ‘s explanation of continental drift is incorrect, one of his most significant contributions was his suggestion that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge—an underwater mountain chain discovered by the 1872-1876 British HMS Challenger expeditions—might mark the site at which an ancient continent broke apart, forming the present –day Atlantic Ocean.

However, it is Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, who is generally credited with developing the hypothesis of continental drift. In his monumental book, The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915), Wegener proposed that all landmasses were originally united into a single supercontinent that he named “Pangaea.” Wegner portrayed his grand concept of continental movement in a series of maps showing the breakup of Pangaea and the movement of various continents to their present-day locations. What evidence did Wegener use to support his hypothesis of continental drift? First, Wegener noted that the shorelines of continents fit together, forming a large supercontinent and that marine, nonmarine, and glacial rock sequences of Pennsylvanian to Jurassic ages are almost identical for all Gondwana continents, strongly indicating that they were joined together at one time. Furthermore, mountain ranges and glacial deposits seem to match up in such a way that suggests continents could have once been a single landmass. And last, many of the same extinct plant and animal groups are found today on widely separated continents, indicating that the continents must have been in proximity at one time. Wegener argued that this vast amount of evidence from a variety of sources surely indicated the continents must have been close together at one time in the past.

Alexander Du Toit, a South African geologist was one of Wegener’s ardent supporters. He noted that fossils of the Permian freshwater reptile “Mesosaurus” occur in rocks of the same age in both Brazil and South Africa. Because the physiology of freshwater and marine animals is completely different, it is hard to imagine how a freshwater reptile could have swum across the Atlantic Ocean and then found a freshwater environment nearly identical to its former habitat.Furthermore, if Mesosaurus could have swum across the ocean, its fossil remains should occur in other localities besides Brazil and South Africa. It is more logical to assume that Mesosaurus lived in lakes in what are now adjacent areas of South America and Africa but were then united in a single continent.

Despite what seemed to be overwhelming evidence presented Wegener and later Du Toit and others, most geologists at the time refused to entertain the idea that the continents might have moved in the past

过去地球的地理不同于现在地球的地理，这个想法并不新鲜。最早的地图显示南美洲东海岸和非洲西海岸可能为人们提供了第一个证据，以证明大陆可能曾经是连在一起的，然后分裂并迁移到了它们现在所在的位置。 在十九世纪晚期，奥地利地质学家爱德华·休斯指出了印度，澳大利亚，南非和南美的晚古生代植物化石之间的相似之处。植物化石包括一组独特的植物，这些植物出现在南部大陆冰川沉积物上方的煤层中。在这本书《地球的面貌》（1885）中，他提出了一个名为“冈瓦纳大陆”（在这里称为“冈瓦纳”）的超大陆，由上述南方大陆构成。 休斯认为这些南部大陆之间有陆地桥梁相连接，植物和动物在那里迁徙。因此，他认为，这些大陆化石的相似之处是由连接陆桥的出现和消失所造成的。 美国地质学家弗兰克·泰勒在1910年出版了一本小册子，介绍他自己的大陆漂移理论。他解释了山脉形成是由大陆横向运动造成的。他还设想现在的大陆是大型极地大陆的一部分，在地球自转受巨大的潮汐力量所影响，其速度减缓后，最终分裂并向赤道移动。根据泰勒的理论，这些潮汐力是在大约1亿年前地球引力俘获月球时产生的。尽管我们认为，泰勒对大陆漂移的解释是不正确的，但是他最重要的一项贡献就是他的建议，即大西洋中脊--1872 - 1876年英国HMS挑战者探险队发现的水下山脉 - 可能标志着一个古老的大陆在这个地点分裂开来，形成了今天的大西洋。 然而，一般认为德国气象学家阿尔弗雷德·魏格纳，首创了大陆漂移的假说。韦格纳在其不朽的《大陆与海洋起源》（1915年）一书中提出，最初，所有的陆块都统一为一个单一的超大陆，他将其称之为“盘古大陆”。韦格纳用一系列地图描绘了他的大陆运动的宏伟概念，展现了盘古大陆的分裂，以及各大洲向其当今所在地点的移动。韦格纳用什么证据支持他的大陆漂移假说呢？首先，韦格纳指出，大陆的海岸线合为一体，形成一个大的超大陆，而且宾夕法尼亚至侏罗纪时代的海洋，非海洋和冰川岩石序列与冈瓦纳大陆的所有这些顺序是几乎是相同的，这表明宾夕法尼亚和侏罗纪时代曾经一起连接在一起。此外，山脉和冰川沉积似乎是相匹配的，这表明各大洲可能曾经是一个单一的陆块。最后，今天在相距甚远的大陆上，人们发现了许多已灭绝的同种植物和动物群体，表明这些大陆曾一度非常接近。韦格纳认为，来自于各种渠道的大量证据肯定表明，这些大洲在过去一段时间一定是紧密地联系在一起。 南非地质学家亚历山大·杜·特瓦是韦格纳的热心支持者之一。他指出，二叠纪淡水爬行动物“中龙属”的化石出现在巴西和南非同龄的岩石中。因为淡水和海洋动物的生理机能完全不同，而且很难想象淡水爬行动物如何在大西洋上游动的，然后发现淡水环境几乎与其原栖息地是一样的。此外，如果“中龙属”可以在海洋中游动，它的化石遗迹应该出现在巴西和南非以外的其他地方。如果“中龙属”生活在南美洲和非洲相邻地区的湖泊中，然后统一到一个大陆上，这样做更为合理。 尽管似乎有非常明确的证据显示证明韦格纳和后来的杜托伊特等人，但当时的大多数地质学家都拒绝接受这一观点，即不相信大陆可能在过去进行移动。