land bridge

views updated May 08 2018

land bridge Connection between two land masses, especially continents, e.g. the Bering land bridge linking Alaska and Siberia across the Bering Strait, that allows migration of plants and animals from one land mass to the other. Before the wide-spread acceptance of continental drift, the existence of former land bridges was often invoked to explain faunal and floral similarities between continents now widely separated. On a smaller scale, the term may be applied to land connections that have now been removed by recent tectonics or the Flandrian transgression (e.g. between northern France and south-eastern England).

land bridge

views updated May 21 2018

land bridge A connection between two land masses, especially continents (e.g. the Bering land bridge linking Alaska and Siberia across the Bering Strait), which allows migration of plants and animals from one land mass to the other. Before the widespread acceptance of continental drift, the existence of former land bridges was often invoked to explain faunal and floral similarities between continents now widely separated. On a smaller scale, the term may be applied to land connections that have now been removed by recent tectonics or the Flandrian rise in sea level (e.g. between northern France and south-eastern England).

land bridge

views updated Jun 08 2018

land bridge • n. a connection between two landmasses, esp. a prehistoric one that allowed humans and animals to colonize new territory before being cut off by the sea, as across the Bering Strait and the English Channel.

land bridge

views updated May 14 2018

land bridge A hypothetical connection between two land masses, especially continents, that allowed migration of plants and animals from one land mass to the other. Before the widespread acceptance of continental drift, the existence of former land bridges was often invoked to explain faunal and floral similarities between continents now widely separated.

land bridge

views updated May 21 2018

land bridge A connection between two land masses, especially continents, that allows the migration of plants and animals from one land mass to the other. Before the widespread acceptance of continental drift, the existence of former land bridges was often invoked to explain faunal and floral similarities between continents that are now widely separated.