Landscapes change – sometimes gradually, but also sometimes
in fits and spurts. There are real-life consequences to this change.
Q: When the area drifting from Africa eventually fully
separates will any animals become extinct? How many new animals would be
expected to evolve? How long would it take for the scenery to greatly differ
from how it once was?
- Veronica V
A: Your question is ambiguous, so I will take it upon myself
to infer that you mean the ~6,000-kilometer-long Great Rift Valley of Africa.
That name itself is somewhat ambiguous, since it combines
features from a number of separate although related rift and fault systems
stretching from Jordan to Mozambique. This continental split has been forming
since at least the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago, and is currently pulling
apart at a rate of about 7 mm per year. At that rate of extension, a complete
rupture will occur within 10 million years, and the Somalian plate will break
off, forming a new sea between it and Africa not unlike the Red Sea.
As to the animals, well, if history is any predictor of the
future you can expect several things:
1. VAST numbers of animal species will go extinct this
century. This is due to habitat elimination, over-hunting, and climate change. You
are watching this “Sixth Extinction” happen right now, as poachers decimate African
Rhinos and Elephants for their horns and tusks, and Tigers in Asia for their
internal organs and bones, just to satiate a bottomless appetite in Yemen and China.
2. Those that survive on the “New Madagascar” that will be
the eventual Somali Island will evolve to fit their altered ecosystem. Often
this means they will grow smaller – evolve to better use the limited resources
of a now-limited landscape.
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