Chunk of North America is part of Australia

[UM-Bot 6,276]

Scientists have identified an area of Australia that broke away from North America 1.7 billion years ago.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/315093/chunk-of-north-america-is-part-of-australia

[Noxasa 176]

From the description, shouldn't it be the other way around...that a chunk of Australia is part of North America...namely, Canada?

[Piney 26,473]

The Appalachians and Atlas Mountains share the same origins. They are basically 2 halves of the same range (disproving a certain lost continent in the Atlantic). The UK and the East Coast of North America also "share geology" (disproving self same theory).

Edited January 23, 2018 by Piney

[godnodog 408]

Smart land

[Sundew 2,929]

Well that explains the possums.....

[Unfortunately 548]

Hah! Take that North America! 

*Begins chanting like a bogan* AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!!

No? ...I'll just show myself the door.

[Aardvark-DK 248]

So, can't Trump just rule that part, and let others rule the big part ? 

[Piney 26,473]

21 hours ago, Sundew said:

Well that explains the possums.....

They crossed Antarctica and through South America, which was all marsupial until it connected to North America.

[Carnoferox 4,080]

20 minutes ago, Piney said:

They crossed Antarctica and through South America, which was all marsupial until it connected to North America.

Believe it or not, platypuses took the same route into South America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obdurodon#Monotrematum_sudamericanum

[paperdyer 1,581]

Interesting.  Wasn't Australia originally thought to be from Antarctica like India.  Do all the Aussies have to start saying EAH? at the end of every sentence now?

[oldrover 4,958]

2 hours ago, Piney said:

They crossed Antarctica and through South America, which was all marsupial until it connected to North America.

****PEDANT ALERT****

Not quite, there were Eutherians in South America before the formation of the Panama isthmus. Although I did used to (1990's style) understand the where and when quite well, as Carnoferox has patiently pointed out many times, my knowledge outside of one species is now badly out of date. So I won't expand. 

But yes to all the rest of your post. 

[Piney 26,473]

21 minutes ago, oldrover said:

****PEDANT ALERT****

Not quite, there were Eutherians in South America before the formation of the Panama isthmus. Although I did used to (1990's style) understand the where and when quite well, as Carnoferox has patiently pointed out many times, my knowledge outside of one species is now badly out of date. So I won't expand. 

But yes to all the rest of your post. 

It's really out of my archaeology sphere but I tried.

[Carnoferox 4,080]

1 hour ago, oldrover said:

****PEDANT ALERT****

Not quite, there were Eutherians in South America before the formation of the Panama isthmus. Although I did used to (1990's style) understand the where and when quite well, as Carnoferox has patiently pointed out many times, my knowledge outside of one species is now badly out of date. So I won't expand. 

But yes to all the rest of your post. 

South America actually had a lot of native eutherians before the Isthmus of Panama formed sometime in the middle to late Miocene, including New World monkeys and xenarthrans like armadillos, sloths, and anteaters, as well as endemic extinct groups like notoungulates (i.e. Toxodon) and litopterns (i.e. Macrauchenia). 

Edited January 24, 2018 by Carnoferox

[Socks Junior 1,293]

7 hours ago, paperdyer said:

Interesting.  Wasn't Australia originally thought to be from Antarctica like India.  Do all the Aussies have to start saying EAH? at the end of every sentence now?

Antarctica, Australia, and India were all close friends in Gondwana - but Gondwana formation didn't finish until early Cambrian, say 520 Myr ago. 1700 Myr ago is over 3 times longer than that! That's when Columbia was supposedly coming together. Then Rodinia, then Gondwana (not technically a supercontinent but quite an amalgamation), then Pangea (which included Gondwana). The basement of Precambrian geology is incredibly deep. "No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end" and all that.

All that being said - this should really be in the Earth Science forum.

[oldrover 4,958]

19 hours ago, Carnoferox said:

South America actually had a lot of native eutherians before the Isthmus of Panama formed sometime in the middle to late Miocene, including New World monkeys and xenarthrans like armadillos, sloths, and anteaters, as well as endemic extinct groups like notoungulates (i.e. Toxodon) and litopterns (i.e. Macrauchenia). 

Macrauchenia, I remember buying a little plastic model of one of these when I sas very young, the first time I realised there were cooler things than dinosaurs. 

By chance I watched a very informative (but annoyingly delivered) lecture today by Thomas Holtz. In which he said that DNA had been extracted from both Toxodon and Macrauchenia, and they were both closer to each other than anything else, and outside of which were most closely akin to the Perissodactyls.

[Carnoferox 4,080]

1 hour ago, oldrover said:

Macrauchenia, I remember buying a little plastic model of one of these when I sas very young, the first time I realised there were cooler things than dinosaurs. 

By chance I watched a very informative (but annoyingly delivered) lecture today by Thomas Holtz. In which he said that DNA had been extracted from both Toxodon and Macrauchenia, and they were both closer to each other than anything else, and outside of which were most closely akin to the Perissodactyls.

According to the paper (first link) DNA was only successfully recovered from Macrauchenia. Its close relationship to Toxodon was confirmed based on earlier protein analyses (second link). I'm surprised that Holtz was giving the lecture considering he specializes in dinosaurs.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15951

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14249

Edited January 25, 2018 by Carnoferox

[oldrover 4,958]

2 hours ago, Carnoferox said:

 I'm surprised that Holtz was giving the lecture considering he specializes in dinosaurs.

 

It was a run through only, but very interesting and included several groups I'd not previously heard of. As I say though, the humour grated a bit, as did the audience participation.