In a new study published in the June 2021 issue of Earth Science Reviews, an explanation of the mystery of ancient fossils discovered in the Antilles Islands in Central America, which contained fossils of ancient wildlife that had originated in South America.
The study attributed the reason to areas of land that used to represent land transport bridges between the Americas, but it sank long ago in the depths of the ocean due to several factors, the most important of which may be the movement of tectonic plates and the melting of glaciers throughout the ages. Read also Amazing fossil of a bird-like dinosaur incubating eggs that is about to hatch For the first time, an estimate of the number of T-Rex dinosaurs that roamed the Earth in the Cretaceous period Similar to the Mayan pyramids in Mexico .. Discovery of a pyramid structure in Tikal, Guatemala Siberian fisheries volcanoes led to a mass extinction … and shell fossils tell us the story
Tectonic plate movement simulation
According to a report by Science Alert, researchers from French, British and Romanian universities have collaborated to develop a model to simulate nearly 40 million years of tectonic plate movement at the borderline of the Lesser Antilles, the Greater Antilles and the underwater Aves Ridge.
The researchers took into account the role of the rise and fall of sea level over 1.5 million years, because of its great impact on the emergence and disappearance of these huge islands “archipelagos”. The seismic data that was monitored in the area over the past 40 million years has also been studied, in addition to an assessment of the current geography of the islands.
Thus, with the help of the computer model, researchers were able to understand the mechanism of formation of land masses and their disintegration again, over the course of millions of years up to the late Eocene period, a geological period that lasted from 56 million years to 34 million years.
The beginning of the Eocene period was marked by the emergence of modern mammals and ended with a massive mass extinction believed to have resulted from a giant meteor collision with Earth in the Siberian region at the time.
Future studies targeting the Caribbean plate
It is noteworthy that the Antilles constitute the archipelago located between the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is divided into two main groups, namely, the Greater Antilles, which lies to the north and includes Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles, which includes the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands and the Venezuelan coastal islands.
The researchers believe that these archipelagos and huge islands were very common in the past, as they appear and persist over several millions of years and then disappear later for millions more. Here, we can note that Russia and Canada were connected in the past, as well as the United Kingdom was connected with the rest of Europe.
Given the scarcity of studies that have been concerned with the Antilles region, this study is considered the first of its kind to present a simulation model concerned with this amount of detail and factors that can affect the entire region. Using this developed model, the researchers hope to extend their study southward to cover the entire Caribbean slab.
With these results, researchers continue to search for a more complete fossil record for the Lesser Antilles, in addition to the need to better visualize the geography of the ancient region between Guadeloupe and Venezuela in order to more accurately determine the previously existing land movement paths.
The researchers concluded that “the role of the Lesser Antilles in the distribution of wildlife over the past 40 million years must be re-evaluated.”