The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth Ortelius hypothesized the idea that land masses may have been connected in the past, Alfred Wegener who hypothesized the idea of a super-continent Pangaea and continental drift despite the prevailing idea of flooded land-bridges at the time, and Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp who discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that supported the theory of plate tectonics. Tyson describes how the landmasses of the earth lay atop the mantle, which moves due to the motion and heat of the earth's outer and inner core. Tyson moves on to explain the asteroid impact that initiated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, leaving small mammals
The Weathering Continent pace of the plot "a little faster than the diffusion of molasses through a granite wall" and that the key characters constantly reflect on past events. The Weathering Continent The first installment of "The Weathering Continent" was published in "Monthly Dragon Magazine" in April 1988, with a total of 28 collected novels released from November 1990 to April 2006. An anime feature film based on the novels was also released theatrically in Japan on July 18, 1992. It is available in the United States courtesy of Media Blasters. During the novels' original run, several side stories were published. A short,