Paleogeography is the reconstruction of the position of
continents and oceans in the
geological past by knowledge of
fossil distribution.
At present, the distribution of plants and animals, both terrestrial and marine, is influenced by the pathways available for them to spread. These pathways are dependant on the positions of land, sea, mountains, low-lands - in other words, on the geography of the Earth. In the past, this geography was different.
Not only were the outlines of the continents themselves unlike those of today, but the continents themselves were on different places on the globe. Many disciplines of the earth sciences contribute to the reconstruction of the geography of the past, or Paleogeography. Discontinuities in the distribution of modern organisms and fossils were amongst the first evidence that led geologists to suspect that continents in the past were in different positions from that of present day.
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