The competing claims of Growing Earth Theory and Plate Tectonics Theory as presented in the accompanying article may appear to be a recent rivalry, but they are in fact following in a long tradition.
Soon after accurate maps of the world were first drawn courtesy of the great European navigations of the 15th to 18th centuries, scholars studying them were struck especially by the facing coastlines of Africa and North and South America that appeared to fit into each other if pushed together.
Consequently, they theorized that those continents — and by extension other land masses — were long ago much closer together. Just how long ago, however, was not determined until well into the 20th century.