This is how our Earth looks now. With seven continents placed like this. But long time ago it was a different story altogether. And by long time I mean 500 million years ago!!  At that time there was just one landmass called Pangaea and a massive water body known as Panthalassa. Earth then looked something like this.

But wait a minute. If this were 500 million years ago then how did we get to know this? Well we know this because there is a lot of evidence to believe that Pangaea existed. Fossils of  same plants and animals that existed millions of years ago have been found as far apart as Australia, South America, Antarctica, Africa and India. These continents were all together at one time. Some mountains in South Africa and South America are made up of same rocks. Now look at this, if you observe carefully, the facing side of South America and Africa would fit together perfectly like two puzzle pieces. Just coincidence??

Scientists have also proven that our Earth is like a big puzzle. Like any puzzle is made of pieces, Earth is made up of these tectonic plates that are pieces of Earth’s crust. They way puzzle pieces are moved to change the way puzzle looks these tectonic plates move to change the way Earth looks. Only that this change happens over millions of years!! This theory is called “Plate Tectonics”.

Would you like to see how our Earth will look 250 million years from now?

Last but not the least:
The word ‘Pangaea’ means ‘Entire Earth’ in ancient Greek.
Alfred Wegener in 1912 came up with the theory of  ‘Continental drift’ that suggested for the first time that continents have drifted apart over a million of years.
Nobody believed Wegener saying he wasn’t even a geologist and thought he was foolish.