Presently available evidence on the distribution of flora and fauna, the latter including vertebrates, insects and fresh-water forms, indicates that Gondwanaland and the northern continents, particularly Angaraland and Cathaysia, were never separated by an oceanic deep, as often envisaged in the past. Nor was the Tethys, sensu stricto, of geosynclinal character.
Instead, it was an epicontinental sea, transgressing and regressing frequently, covering the area from northern India to southern Siberia, and from the present western Pacific coastal area to, perhaps Italy, in its former position besides Spain. It, apparently, continued into the Appalachian Geosyncline, and through it extended from eastern to western Panthalassa. It was, thus, a truly intra-Pangaean sea. On the other hand, it continued into the Yunnan-Malay Geosyncline, and perhaps with a small gap, into the Tasman, Samfrau, and the Cordilleran (Andean) geosynclines. It might, then have provided a link between the two ends of a vast hemi-elleptical geosyncline. Simultaneously, the Cordilleran-Nevadan-Laramide geosynclines existed along western North America, and with the hemi-elleptical geosyncline, described above, formed a sigma (2) like figure. In addition, there were the Cherskyi, the Mongolian and other geosynclines. Palaeozoic Pangaea, thus abounded in them, and along with the seas besides them, a vast area of Pangaea must have been covered by sea-water.
The floral differences between Gondwanaland and Laurasia in the Permian, on which much stress was laid in the past, were obviously, climate-controlled, and were not the evidence for an oceanic separation.
It is also probable that a land bridge connected the Indian shield with the Russian shield in the region west of Pamir, but was, on occasions, submerged. Thus, an oceanic Tethys, appearing on most Pangaean assemblies and requiring collision and subduction in the Himalayan region is a myth, and accordingly the reconstructions are invalid. Since this oceanic wedge disappears when Pangaea is assembled on a globe of a smaller diameter, we may have to accept the concept of expanding Earth.
Also there is no justification for the suggested northward drift of India, as envisaged on palaeomagnetic data. Instead, it appears that polar-wandering, sensu stricto, was responsible for this anomaly, for as the South Pole migrated to its present location, India appeared to have migrated northward. Absence of relevant data from Africa and South America precludes confirmation of the evidence from India. This large north-ward drift of India supported plate-tectonic interpretations, and consequently, received wide and prompt acceptance from its proponents.
In the Himalayan-Tibetan region, on the contrary, although 4 very thick stratigraphic succession accumulated from at least the Cambrian through Cretaceous, and may be later, almost none of it is geosynclinal in character. Deep seismic sounding in the Pamir region has convincingly demonstrated that all the faults in the area are high-angled and some even reached into the mantle. The so-called Indus Suture Zone is, in fact, a rift valley, and its eruptions might have produced some of the rocks classified as ophiolites. Numerous rift valleys and normal faults exist on the Tibetan plateau and unequivocally bespeak of tension all over the area, and not of compression, that one would expect from a subduction/collision zone.
Significant also is the occurrence of Gigantopteris flora, characteristic of the tropical parts of Cathaysia, in several areas of North America. It is inexplicable unless the Pacific itself was of a much smaller width, and permitted direct migration, for northeast Siberia was having a glacial climate in the Permian and this tropical flora could not migrate across it.

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