Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia and Eurafrasia ) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa , Europe , and Asia . The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Afro-Eurasia has also been called the " Old World ", in contrast to the " New World " referring to the Americas .
16-410: The genus Scarabaeus consists of a number of Afro-Eurasian dung beetle species, including the "sacred scarab beetle", Scarabaeus sacer and is the namesake of the tribe Scarabaeini , the family Scarabaeidae , the superfamily Scarabaeoidea and the infraorder Scarabaeiformia . These beetles feed exclusively on dung , which they accomplish by rolling a piece of dung some distance from where it
32-524: Is expected to continue drifting northward. It will close the Strait of Gibraltar , quickly evaporating the Mediterranean Sea . No supercontinent will form within the settled time frame, however, and the geologic record is full of unexpected shifts in tectonic activity that make further projections "very, very speculative". Three possibilities are known as Novopangaea , Amasia , and Pangaea Proxima . In
48-746: Is in the Western Hemisphere and is Asia’s easternmost point on a continuous path. • Highest point – Mount Everest or Qomolangma , China and Nepal • Lowest point (on land) – shores of the Dead Sea , between Israel and Jordan [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Antarctica [REDACTED] Asia [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] Europe [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] South America [REDACTED] Afro-Eurasia [REDACTED] Americas [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] Oceania Messinian The Messinian
64-805: Is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene . It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Tortonian and is followed by the Zanclean , the first age of the Pliocene . The Messinian overlaps the Turolian European Land Mammal Mega Zone (more precisely MN 12 and 13) and the Pontian Central European Paratethys Stage. It also overlaps
80-605: Is typically considered to comprise two or three separate continents , it is not a proper supercontinent . Instead, it is the largest present part of the supercontinent cycle . The oldest part of Afro-Eurasia is probably the Kaapvaal Craton , which together with Madagascar and parts of the Indian subcontinent and western Australian continent formed part of the first supercontinent Vaalbara or Ur around 3 billion years ago . It has made up parts of every supercontinent since. At
96-667: The Australian plate . The Arabian plate broke off of Africa around 30 million years ago and impacted the Iranian plate between 19 and 12 million years ago during the Miocene , ultimately forming the Alborz and Zagros chains of Iranian plate . After this initial connection of Afro-Eurasia, the Betic corridor along the Gibraltar Arc closed a little less than 6 million years ago in
112-660: The Messinian , fusing northwest Africa and Iberia together. This led to the nearly complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Basin , the Messinian salinity crisis . Eurasia and Africa were then again separated with the Zanclean Flood around 5.33 million years ago refilling the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar . Today, the Eurasian plate and African plate dominate their respective continents. However,
128-778: The North American plate incorporating the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Far East . Conventionally, Africa is joined to Eurasia only by a relatively narrow land bridge (which has been split by the Suez Canal at the Isthmus of Suez ) and remains separated from Europe by the straits of Gibraltar and Sicily . Paleogeologist Ronald Blakey has described the next 15 to 100 million years of tectonic development as fairly settled and predictable. In that time, Africa
144-727: The Somali plate covers much of eastern Africa, creating the East African Rift . In the eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea plate , Anatolian plate and Arabian plate also form a boundary with the African plate, which incorporates the Sinai Peninsula , Gulf of Aqaba and the coastal Levant via the Dead Sea transform . Eurasia also includes the Indian plate , Burma plate , Sunda plate , Yangtze plate , Amur plate and Okhotsk plate , with
160-506: The Italian city of Messina on Sicily , where the Messinian evaporite deposit is of the same age. The base of the Messinian is at the first appearance of the planktonic foram species Globorotalia conomiozea and is stratigraphically in the middle of magnetic chronozone C3Br.1r. The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Messinian is located in a section at Oued Akrech, near
176-677: The breakup of Pangaea around 200 million years ago , the North American and Eurasian plates together formed Laurasia while the African plate remained in Gondwana , from which the Indian plate split off. Upon impact with the Eurasian plate, the Indian plate created southern Asia around 50 million years ago and began the formation of the Himalayas . Around the same time, the Indian plate also fused with
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#1732876502087192-626: The first two, the Pacific closes and Africa remains fused to Eurasia, but Eurasia itself splits as Africa and Europe spin towards the west; in the last, the trio spin eastward together as the Atlantic closes, creating land borders with the Americas . This is a list of the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location as well as the highest and lowest elevations on Afro-Eurasia. The 180th meridian passes through Asia, so this point
208-436: The late Huayquerian and early Montehermosan South American Land Mammal Ages , and falls inside the more extensive Hemphillian North American Land Mammal Age . During the Messinian, around 6 million years ago, the Messinian salinity crisis took place, which brought about repeated desiccations of the Mediterranean Sea . The Messinian was introduced by Swiss stratigrapher Karl Mayer-Eymar in 1867. Its name comes from
224-406: The world's land area, and has a population of approximately 6.7 billion people, roughly 86% of the world population . Together with mainland Australia , they comprise the vast majority of the land in the world's Eastern Hemisphere . The Afro-Eurasian mainland is the largest and most populous contiguous landmass on Earth . The following terms are used for similar concepts: Although Afro-Eurasia
240-643: Was a popular form of amulet in Ancient Egypt , and in ancient Greek art engraved gems were often carved as scarabs on the rest of the stone behind the main flattish face, which was used for sealing documents. A creature identified as Scarabaeus appears in " The Gold-Bug " by Edgar Allan Poe , and a poem entitled "Scarabæus sisyphus" was created by Mathilde Blind . The following subgenera are accepted in BioLib : Afro-Eurasia Afro-Eurasia encompasses 84,980,532 km (32,811,167 sq mi), 57% of
256-413: Was deposited, and burying it in order to feed on it underground. They also prepare food for their larvae by excavating an underground chamber, and filling it with balls that have eggs laid in them. The growing larva feeds upon the dung ball, pupates , and eventually emerges as an adult. A "scarabaeus" is also a now outdated term ( OED 2) for an object in the form of a scarab beetle in art. The scarab
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