The Wallace Line

YouTube

The video discusses an area of Indonesia where a narrow strait sharply divides the type of animals on either sides.

This divide helps gives clues about the history of the earth's movement by plate tectonics and how the surface was shaped in the past. The reason for the biological divide is likely due to where the two land areas originated from eons ago.

@vivify
Where at that earlier time the animals were the same on both parts but after the split they would have evolutionarily split into separate species.
Doesn't seem like rocket science🙂

@sonhouse said
@vivify
Where at that earlier time the animals were the same on both parts but after the split they would have evolutionarily split into separate species.
Doesn't seem like rocket science🙂

It's not just that the animals evolved into different species; the issue is that a mere 35 miles separates a vastly different array of animals.

Imagine if on one side of the Mississippi river had snakes, spiders and scorpions, and on the side are Kangaroos, lions and penguins. That would be a wild difference.

I'm exaggerating a bit just to illustrate the point that different evolutionary paths alone, according to the video, don't explain the full story.

Scientists believe the the difference is due to the fact that the land areas, despite their close proximity to each other, originated from different areas of earth. They are only close together now (35 miles apart) due to plate tectonics but in the past were hundreds of miles apart. The movement of plates brought these vastly different animals close together.

@vivify said
[youtube]QTK_bC00ilg[/youtube]

The video discusses an area of Indonesia where a narrow strait sharply divides the type of animals on either sides.

This divide helps gives clues about the history of the earth's movement by plate tectonics and how the surface was shaped in the past. The reason for the biological divide is likely due to where the two land areas originated from eons ago.

Thanks for putting this on; I live in Sulawesi, on the eastern side of the great divide with Borneo, and am currently in Bali, where the line divides Bali and Lombok. I've watched a few of the programmes so far, and will watch the rest!

@vivify
I guess that movement of plate tectonics is not over and they will get closer still in the far future, wonder how long that will take? More than a thousand years I bet.

@indonesia-phil said
Thanks for putting this on; I live in Sulawesi, on the eastern side of the great divide with Borneo, and am currently in Bali, where the line divides Bali and Lombok. I've watched a few of the programmes so far, and will watch the rest!

You're quite welcome.

@sonhouse said
@vivify
I guess that movement of plate tectonics is not over and they will get closer still in the far future, wonder how long that will take? More than a thousand years I bet.

Who knows; millions of years from now plate movements could in result in bears living near giraffes.

Plate movements, like evolution, never ends, it's a continuous process.

@vivify
Lets hope the movements don't stop!