Scientists may have found Brazilian 'Atlantis'
Scientists may have found Brazilian 'Atlantis'
2 hours ago
Brazilian geologists announced the discovery, 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from Rio, of what could be part of the continent that was submerged when the Atlantic Ocean was formed as Africa and South America drifted apart 100 million years ago.
Roberto Ventura Santos, a top official at Brazil's Geology Service (CPRM), said granite samples were found two years ago during dredging operations in an area known as "Rio Grande Elevation", a mountain range in Brazilian and international waters.
Granite is seen as a continental rock.
"This could be the Brazilian Atlantis. We are almost certain but we must bolster our hypothesis. We will have final (scientific) recognition this year when we conduct drilling in the area to retrieve more samples of these rocks," the G1 news website quoted Ventura as saying.
Initially, the scientists thought they were mistaken, Ventura noted.
More: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-scientists-brazilian-atlantis.html#jCp
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Paleogeography of the South Atlantic: a Routefor Primates and Rodents into the New World?
Introduction
The history of primates and rodents in South America started in the Oligocene,around30millionyearsago(Ma)(Hoffstetter1969;Simpson1980;Wyssetal.1993;Takai et al. 2000), with the possibility of an even earlier Eocene occurrence for rodents (Frailey and Campbell 2004). By that time, South America was alreadyseparated from Africa and not yet connected to North America via the Isthmus of Panama (Scotese 2004).
If primates and rodents arrived between 50 and 20Ma, twocritical questions arise: where did they come from, and how did they reach SouthAmerica?
The question “where” generated great controversy in the past (Ciochonand Chiarelli 1980; George and Lavocat 1993; Goldblatt 1993). During the twen-tieth century, the most widely accepted opinion was that the New World monkeys(Platyrrhini) and the Old World monkeys (Catarrhini) evolved their higher primatefeatures in parallel in Africa and South America from different prosimian ances-tors (Gazin 1958; Simons 1961; Fleagle and Gilbert 2006).
No prosimian fossilis known from South America, but given their Eocene abundance in North Amer-ica, the possibility of a migration across the Caribbean Sea was entertained inthe past (Wood 1980, 1993). An equivalent hypothesis was proposed for rodents,implying convergent evolution of a specialized jaw morphology (hystricognathy)in South American caviomorphs and African phiomorph rodents (Ciochon andChiarelli 1980; Wood 1993).
Nonetheless, with the increasing acceptance of phylogenetic methods, plentyof evidence that platyrrhines and catarrhines are sister taxa and share a commonancestry became available, rendering convergent evolution of anthropoid features from prosimians an improbable alternative. The same holds for South Ameri-can caviomorphs and African phiomorphs. Recent molecular and fossil analysesclearly indicate that these South American lineages each represent monophyleticgroups that are most closely related to African forms (Nedbal et al
http://www.academia.edu/182638/Paleogeography_of_the_South_Atlantic_a_route_for_primates_and_rodents_into_the_New_World
Possible Atlantis Found In Brazil Via Discovery Of Ancient Granite Rock
May 9, 2013
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
First mentioned in two dialogues (Timaeus and Critias) by Plato in 360 BC, the legendary island of Atlantis has long been sought by historians, archaeologists, and explorers alike. Said to have originally existed between South America and Africa, this sunken island has been searched for in no less than dozens of locations worldwide, from Bimini to the Black Sea.
In a new twist, a team of scientists from Brazil and Japan say they have discovered their version of Atlantis, or at least an ancient piece of granite that was part of a continent that disappeared nearly a hundred million years ago when Africa and South America separated.
Brazilian “Atlantis,” as they are calling it, may actually have been part of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea formed about 300 million years ago during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It existed for more than 100 million years before beginning to break apart to form the continents as we see them today.
The researchers discovered the granite artifact more than 8,000 feet deep in a region known as the Rio Grande Elevation, about 900 miles of the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The team said the granite is a natural formation that normally forms on dry land, which would offer evidence that the region was once above sea level.
The discovery was announced by the Geology Service of Brazil (CPRM) as a sign of a lost continent.
More:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112841969/atlantis-discovered-coast-brazil-granite-rock-050913/
