Early scientists thought that Australian flora, fauna and geology
were different from the rest of the world because they had formed
later. Today we know that the world's most ancient rocks are found in
Australia.
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Western Australia's
continental crust is older than 3500 years. Zircons older than 4400
years have been found in Australia. This is only about 200 million
years younger than (what we today believe) is the age of our planet. When
it was observed in the
1800s that fossils found in sedimentary
rocks
in Australia are very similar to those in Africa, India and South
America, it was suggested that these continents were once joined
together.
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Scientists named that continent Gondwana and suggested that
it broke up. But it wasn't until the 1960s when the theory of plate
tectonics developed, as the mechanisms that move plates were understood
and the theory of Gondwana continent was accepted.
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Today we know that
Gondwana
was only the latest
supercontinent where Australia belonged,
an earlier one was Rodinia.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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