In 1912, the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener developed the theory of continental drift. Wegener postulated the existence of a single supercontinent from about 350 million to 245 million years ago, during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, and named it Pangea, meaning “the all-land.” Pangea was the product of continental drift caused in part by tectonic plate movement. He searched the geologic and paleontological literature for evidence supporting the continuity of geologic features across the Indian and Atlantic oceans during that time period, the Mesozoic, about 252 million to 66 million years ago. He presented the idea of continental drift and some of the supporting evidence in a lecture in 1912, followed by his major published work, The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915).
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