Case file · Folklore / legend
Sclater proposes Lemuria
In 1864 the zoologist Philip Sclater proposed a sunken land bridge across the Indian Ocean, which he called Lemuria, to explain why lemur fossils were found in Madagascar and India but not in Africa or the Middle East.
1864 CE · -5.00, 65.00 · status: explained
The account
Occultists including Helena Blavatsky later turned Lemuria into the homeland of a lost 'root race', and the idea spread to Tamil revivalism and California mysticism.
The sceptical view
Plate tectonics replaced the land bridge: the continents themselves moved apart.