Plate tectonics bitten to death?
Another painful blow and bite for plate tectonics theory and especially the very visually bizarre and seemingly impossible ultra rapid movement of the Indian Plate? Also for the idea of the supercontinent Gondwana and its breakup?
And all this trouble for and evidence against plate tectonics from one of the smallest and most annoying insects on the planet, the dreaded swarming biting midge?
India gradually drifted away from Africa and Madagascar towards the north and collided with the Eurasian plate. Scientists assumed for a long time that the subcontinent was largely isolated during its long journey through the ocean and unique species of plants and animals were therefore able to develop on it. However, paleontologists at the University of Bonn are now showing using tiny midges encased in amber that there must have been a connection between the apparently cut off India and Europe and Asia around 54 million years ago that enabled the creatures to move around.
India was by no means as isolated as we thought | The Archaeology News Network
These biting insects have been found in Indian Amber but they are the same type of biting flies found in Europe and other land masses at the same time.
Our study reveals faunal links among Ceratopogonidae from Cambay amber and contemporaneous amber from Fushun, China, Eocene Baltic amber from Europe, as well as the modern Australasian and the Oriental regions.
These findings imply that faunal exchange between Europe, Asia and India took place before the formation of Cambay amber in the early Eocene.
Biting Midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from Cambay Amber Indicate that the Eocene Fauna of the Indian Subcontinent Was Not Isolated
Indian plate tectonics in theory
It seems that it is very very unlikely according to lots of current geology and evolutionary theories for these ultra short distance flying biting bugs to have similarly evolved in separate continents or travelled over and across any vague distances of sea.
There are some very different conclusions that can be made from this evidence. Some are mentioned below, are they logically correct or wrong and what other possible scenarios are there?
One - somehow there were a lot of islands in a chain connecting the Indian plate continent to the rest of the world but there is now now evidence of these islands existence?
Two - the breakup of Gondwana was very different to what current theory is suggesting?
Three - plate tectonics is wrong and did not happen or needs massive modification?
Four - an unprecedented simultaneous evolution in multiple areas?
Thanks to the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies and their In the News section for highlighting the scientists research and conclusions.