Until now, it was thought that Argoland, a 5,000 km long piece of land, “broke off” from Australia 155 million years ago and disappeared. However, it turns out that this did not happen at all. A mysterious continent that had been drifting for millions of years was found by Dutch scientists under the eastern islands of Southeast Asia. “We spent seven years putting the puzzle together,” says Eldert Advokaat from Utrecht University.
A breakthrough in research
Scientists have been trying to determine how the piece of land that broke away from what would become Australia moved. Several fragments were found in Southeast Asia, but the puzzle was still not put together.
Argoland Utrecht University/YouTube
The change in approach was groundbreaking. Researchers began with the question, what if Argoland began its drift in fragments, rather than as one large, whole piece of land? And it turned out that the continent existed and survived as various fragments under the islands east of Indonesia. – Argoland broke up into many different “shards”. This “obscured” our view of the continent’s journey, Advocaat said. What the process of “drift” of Argoland looked like, and where it finally “anchored” can be seen in the video below prepared by scientists from the Netherlands:
“Wallace’s Line” and the discovery of Argoland
The discovery of Argoland may contribute to the understanding of a strange and mysterious phenomenon, the “Wallace Line”. It is an “invisible barrier” running through the middle of Indonesia, separating mammals, birds and even early human species on the islands of Southeast Asia – says . The barrier intrigued scientists because it clearly separates the island’s wildlife. West of this line are mammals such as great apes and tigers and elephants, which are also found in Southeast Asia. However, in the east there are almost none of them, but there are marsupials and cockatoos – animals typically associated with Australia. This may be because Argoland “took” its wildlife with it from the future Australia before it “struck” Southeast Asia, researchers believe.
Source: Gazeta
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