AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIFIC TEAM
MARSUPIAL DISTRIBUTION IN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH AMERICA
SIMULATION GUIDE
Your team’s leader is Dr. Pouch of the University of Perth.
You are studying marsupial mammals. Most marsupials are found in Australia, but opossums and other small shrew-like marsupials can also be found in South America.
You think this may be evidence for Continental Drift. Another group of zoologists has discovered that the North American caribou and the European reindeer are almost identical.
Wegener use the evidence of a fossil reptile, Mesosaurus, to argue for Continental Drift. This animal lived only in shallow waters. Its remains have been found in South America and in Africa.
Is there another explanation? Could small animals have floated across the oceans on logs? Could there once have been land where there is now ocean?
Geography and Ecology of Species Distributions
(read 2. Influence of geologic history on current distributions of species)
Continental Drift - read only the paragraph titled "world wide plant and animal distribution"
Model of Marsupial Radiation - this graphic shows that marsupials first appeared (evolved) in the Americas, and migrated to Australia.
