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Evolution of the Indian Ocean and the drift of India: A vicariant event

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Abstract

The contemporary hypothesis of plate tectonics allows for the dismembering of a Mesozoic megacontinental land mass, Pangaea, into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana. Encompassing the current position of the Indo-West Pacific Oceans, the Tethys Ocean was circumglobal from the Jurassic to the Miocene and separated these two supercontinents. Fragmentation of Gondwana allowed for the northward track of India across the Tethys to collide with Asia, closing the Indo-Mediterranean-Atlanto seaway by early Miocene in conjunction with the suturing of Africa and Europe. It is hypothesized that the evolution of the Indian Ocean and the drift of the Indian Plate represent vicariant events which explain patterns of faunal endemism recognized in the region today.

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    Charles H. Hocutt

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Hocutt, C.H. Evolution of the Indian Ocean and the drift of India: A vicariant event. Hydrobiologia 150, 203–223 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00008704

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