While researching for another article for this very blog, I came across a very instresting phenomenon, a news that popped up from February of this year (2022).
A new continent called Balkanatolia had been unearthed earlier this year by a team of geologists and palaentologists consisting of Turkish, French, and Americans. It is considered to have been a forgotten continent, laying low for centuries, blissfully undiscovered. It is said that it existed around 50 million years ago (during the Eocene epoch), situated in such a way that it separated Europe from Asia. The team found out that it was inhabited by flowers and animals that can neither be found on Asia nor on Europe!
It is possibly a forgotten continent; it has been named “Balkanatolia”, because its discovery to-day spans a region that covers the Balkans and Anatolia.
This is great news to the history and the biological world! I myself was fascinated and was driven to learn more about it.
Here are some sources I have found so far:
- Balkanatolia – Wikipedia
- Balkanatolia: the forgotten continent that sheds light on the evolution of mammals | CNRS
- Balkanatolia: Forgotten Continent Discovered by Team of Paleontologists and Geologists (scitechdaily.com)
- Balkanatolia: The insular mammalian biogeographic province that partly paved the way to the Grande Coupure – ScienceDirect
Stay tuned for more history!
Parchments of the Times Past 