Giant, Now Sunken Islands Could Explain Ancient Migration in The Americas

Here's a mystery: Ancient fossils show animals originating from South America in the Antilles islands off Central America, but how did they get over the sea? The answer is via land masses that have long since sunk from view under the ocean, according to a new study.

These animals certainly couldn't have swum across several hundred kilometers of the Caribbean Sea, so they either floated over on matted vegetation running down rivers, or there were once land bridges in place that have now vanished.

The new research backs the second hypothesis, suggesting that tectonic plate movements and the spreading and shrinking of glaciers over the course of millions of years could have provided a path for wildlife to travel over.

"The Caribbean, including the Greater and Lesser Antilles located at the northeastern edge of the Caribbean Plate, are regarded as one of the most important centers of insular biodiversity," write the researchers in their published paper.

"Despite decades of studies, the phylogenetic origins and historical biogeography of this astonishing biodiversity remain, however, controversial."

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