Unparalleled Insight – Ancient Fossil Discovery Shows How South America and Africa Drifted Apart

Rocks and fossils found in Angola by an SMU-led research team offer an unparalleled view of the formation of the South Atlantic Ocean, illustrating the split of South America and Africa that began about 140 million years ago.

A research team led by Southern Methodist University (SMU) has discovered that ancient rocks and fossils of long-extinct marine reptiles in Angola provide clear evidence of a crucial event in Earth’s history: the separation of South America and Africa and the formation of the South Atlantic Ocean.

With their easily visualized “jigsaw-puzzle fit,” it has long been known that the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America once nestled together in the supercontinent Gondwana — which broke off from the larger landmass of Pangea.