Why did Philip Sclater propose the lost continent of Lemuria?

In 1864, zoologist Philip Sclater proposed the hypothetical sunken continent of Lemuria in the Indian Ocean to account for the peculiar distribution of lemur fossils. He observed that lemurs were found on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent, but strangely absent from continental Africa and the Middle East. This zoological hypothesis was later expanded by other thinkers before being discredited by the advent of plate tectonics.

What we know

• Philip Sclater proposed Lemuria in 1864 as a hypothetical sunken continent located in the Indian Ocean to account for lemur fossil distributions. [1, 2]
• The continent was hypothesized because lemur fossils appeared on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent, but not in continental Africa or the Middle East. [2]
• Biologist Ernst Haeckel expanded the idea in 1870, proposing the hypothetical landmass as the ancestral home of humans. [2, 5]
• The theory of Lemuria was ultimately discredited following the discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift in the 20th century. [2]

Where to go next

• what followedHow did Ernst Haeckel expand Sclater's concept of Lemuria?
• how it workedHow did plate tectonics disprove sunken landmass theories?
• how we knowHow did lemurs actually colonize Madagascar without a lost continent?
• whoWho was zoologist Philip Sclater?
• compared withHow does Lemuria compare to the myth of Atlantis?
• an unexpected connectionHow did a 19th-century zoological hypothesis inspire modern speculative evolution?Although Sclater invented Lemuria for 19th-century zoological distribution puzzles, imaginative reconstructions of past and future zoology eventually gave rise to entire artistic genres of speculative biology.

Sources

• [1]Lemuria (Wikidata Q470970) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Lemuria · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Evolution of lemurs · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]After Man · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Ernst Haeckel · CC BY-SA 4.0