Question

Fossils of Glossopteris, a type of fern, are found in Antarctica. How does this support the theory that the continents have moved over time?

Answer 1

Hint:On the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, Glossopteris, a genus of fossilised woody plants known from rocks dating from the Permian and Triassic periods (approximately 300 to 200 million years ago), is deposited.

Complete answer:
In a number of types of development, glossopteris has occurred. The most common fossil is that of a leaf with a pronounced midrib and reticulate venation, tongue-shaped. The leaves of Glossopteris are typically found in dense mats, but some authorities speculate that the plants are deciduous.
Glossopteris became one of the main features of Gondwana's flora until the last of this group eventually succumbed to extinction at the end of the Triassic Period. Among the first evidence for continental drift was the spread of this herb.

Among other factors, the spread of Glossopteris through many, now detached, landmasses prompted Eduard Suess to conclude that the southern continents were once amalgamated into a single supercontinent, Pangea. These plants became the dominant elements of the southern flora during the remainder of the Permian, but vanished at the end of the Permian in almost every place (251.902 million years ago).

While most current textbooks of palaeobotany refer to the continuity of glossopterids in later parts of the Triassic and, in some instances, in the Jurassic, these ranges are incorrect and are based on the misidentification of morphologically related leaves such as Gontrigloss, Sagenopteris, or Mexigloss. Thus, one of the big victims of the end-Permian mass extinction event was the Glossopterids.

Note:More than 70 fossil species of this genus, with additional species from South America, Australia, Africa, Madagascar and Antarctica, have been recognised in India alone. Essentially, during the Permian period, Glossopteris was limited to the middle and high-latitude areas of Gondwana and was an important contributor to the vast Permian coal deposits of the continents of the Southern Hemisphere.