A GROUNDBREAKING new model shows how present-day countries formed as land rearranged itself nearly 2 billion years ago.
The scientific theory of plate tectonics strives to explain how mountains, volcanoes, and landmasses formed on Earth.
The planet's surface is split into fragments called plates that move together or lurch apart.
Their collisions form mountains, while the space that opens up between them swells with water, creating oceans. Earthquakes also occur along fault lines where tectonic plates touch and grind together.
An international team of researchers used information from the rocks on our planet's surface to track the movement of land over the last 1.8 billion years.
The work was published in Geoscience Frontiers last month, complete with a video outlining their findings.
The clip opens with a map of the world and the seven continents we know today. Then India moves south, followed by parts of Southeast Asia, to form a landmass known as Gondwana.
This ancient continent connected with present-day North America, Europe, and northern Asia some 200 million years ago.
This was during the Triassic period, best known as the era when large reptiles dominated and dinosaurs later emerged.
The junction of landmasses led to the creation of a supercontinent called Pangaea. Its name comes from the Greek pan, or "all," and gaea, meaning "earth."
Pangaea and Gondwana were themselves formed from plate collisions. As time backtracks, an earlier supercontinent called Rodinia materializes.
Rodinia was created when an older supercontinent, Nuna, splintered around 1.35 billion years ago.
Plate tectonics do more than mold the planet's landscape.
They also nudge rocks to the surface from deep inside the Earth, allowing previously trapped elements to erode and wash into bodies of water.
One example is phosphorus, a mineral that forms the molecular backbone of DNA, providing structural support and energy for synthesis.
Another element, mancient continent connected with present-day North America, Europe, and northern Asia some 200 million years ago.olybdenum, binds to enzymes in the body to facilitate the breakdown of certain amino acids - commonly referred to as the "building blocks of life."
Mapping archaic plate tectonics is the first step towards building a complete model of Earth's history.
Such a model will allow scientists to test hypotheses about Earth's past, including its dramatic fluctuations in climate and the way nutrients became available as life evolved.
Animal and plant cells are unique because they boast a nucleus, a membrane-bound organelle that contains nearly all of the cell's DNA.
The first evidence for complex cells with nuclei can be traced to 1.65 billion years ago, close to when Nuna originated.
The researchers intend to test whether the mountains that grew during Nuna's formation may have given rise to these elements, stoking evolution in the process.
The team believes this attempt at mapping the last 1.8 billion years on Earth already furthers our understanding of the world.
But even more mysteries are waiting to be unlocked.
"We suggest that the model can serve as a valuable working hypothesis, laying the groundwork for future hypothesis testing," the authors wrote.