Thursday, August 29, 2024

Spencer's Interesting Map

 

My interesting map is a historical map from 1876 theorizing on the origin and spread of humans across the globe.  This overall, as well as anything it covers isn't anything special to me, however.  Of particular interest, and what I wanted to share is the now disproven theorized land mass of Lemuria.  In the 1800s, it was discovered that there were lemur, or some other similar primate, fossils found in both India and Madagascar, but no records of them being anywhere in between.  The first theory for how this came to be was that a land bridge had connected India and Madagascar, with some depictions stretching this hypothetical landmass out to Australia or other sections of the Oceania region, as well.  The existence for this region would later be disproven by the discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift, which is our current reason for the discrepancy in the fossil record with far more supporting evidence, leaving Lemuria a forgotten theory of history.

1 comment:

David Hunsicker said...

This map has to be one of the most interesting I have ever seen. I find it interesting for a multitude of reasons, such as one of the locations being labeled Paradise (most likely the Garden of Eden) and the fabled landmass of Lemuria, which has me thinking I may have to do a deep dive on that topic. The location of Lemuria was most likely called that because of lemur fossils found in two different parts of the world. Another point is that a map can invoke a religious or cultural phenomenon around it, as some still believe in this pseudoscience content.