Final answer:
Alfred Wegener proposed the idea of continental drift, suggesting that South America and the African coast were once part of a supercontinent named Pangaea. This hypothesis was based on the shape of the continents, fossil evidence, and the distribution of living species.
Step-by-step explanation:
The puzzle-like fit of South American and African coast led Wegener to conclude that they may have once been together. Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist and astronomer, presented his continental drift theory in 1910 after carefully examining the congruence in shape between continents. By 1915, he had assembled sufficient evidence to publish his findings, proposing that the identical fossils found in South America and Africa, as well as resemblances among living animal species on different continents, supported the idea that they were once part of a supercontinent he called Pangaea. The concept of continental drift would later evolve into the theory of plate tectonics, reshaping our understanding of Earth's geology.