Many early mapmakers thought Earth's continents had moved based on what?
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I dont think the early map makers were the ones thinking the continents moved.. \n\nI think it was geologists who discovered the tectonic plates and how the earth's crust is moving, then they analyze ancient rocks from two continents and compare them, if they are the same then they must come from the same continent
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A. True.\nThe concept of continental drift was first proposed by Alfred Wegener. In 1912 he noticed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to fit together (for example, Africa and South America). Francis Bacon, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, Benjamin Franklin, and others had noted much the same thing earlier. The similarity of southern continent fossil faunae and some geological formations had led a relatively small number of Southern hemisphere geologists to conjecture as early as 1900 that all the continents had once been joined into a supercontinent known as Pangaea. The concept was initially ridiculed by most geologists, who felt that an explanation of how a continent drifted was a prerequisite and that the lack of one made the idea of drifting continents wholly unreasonable. The theory received support through the controversial years from South African geologist Alexander Du Toit as well as from Arthur Holmes. The idea of continental drift did not become widely accepted as theory until the 1950s in Europe. By the 1960s, geological research conducted by Robert S. Dietz, Bruce Heezen, and Harry Hess along with a rekindling of the theory including a mechanism by J. Tuzo Wilson led to acceptance among North American geologists.\n\nThe hypothesis of continental drift became part of the larger theory of plate tectonics. This article deals mainly with the historical development of the continental drift hypothesis before 1950. See: plate tectonics for information on current ideas underlying concepts of continental drift.
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Pangaea is the theorized supercontinent that existed eons ago when the earth was much newer. Pangaea broke apart, and over the eons, continental drift due to tectonic plate activity has resulted in the current alignment of the continents.\n\nBut if you piece together the current continents, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, you can get an idea of what Pangaea may have looked like.
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Mandy and Benny both have valid points. It's because of plate tectonics, because of which continents moved. Pangea (single continent) that existed millions and millions of years ago...slowly started dispersing and if you see the movement of india subcontinent, it moved all the way from southern africa and joined asian continent. This must have created a pileup of land that benny is talking about.
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Observing the earth and how the continents fit together like a puzzle if brought together.
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Pangaea was not the first supercontinent believed to have existed. From the evidence available, scientists have reconstructed a predecessor, termed Pannotia, that may have formed about 600 mya, before dividing again some 50 million years later. Another, Rodinia, is believed to have formed approximately 1,100 mya and divided 750 mya. Tentative evidence suggests that the Columbia (supercontinent) existed between 1.8 and 1.5 billion years ago. As you can see its a cycle .. So the continents will keep moving closer to each other till they form a new supercontinent  !!!! This cycle called the supercontinent cycle .. for more check : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent_cycle ..
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Techtonic scientist who study continental drift (which is ongoing) believe that at one time long ago almost all land masses were collected into a huge circle called Pangea (meaning all land).  When it split up to drift into present locations it was probably pure coincidence why pointy parts of land masses pointed one way rather than another.  My pet theory is that luna tides (that affect the oceans and earth's crust) may have biased the direction of "cracks" in the land masses, but perhaps I'm just a luna-tick.  Incidentally the term lunatic originally applied to scientists who met once a month when they could travel at night with the aid of the light of a full moon.
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That work was much more time consuming and tedious for early explorers than it is for us today.  These sites should help you .... and here are some answers to your questions ...\n\n1.  In the third century B.C., the Greek astronomer and mathematician Eratosthenes estimated the Earth’s size by comparing the shadows cast at two locations at noon. He used his knowledge of triangles, circles, and angles to calculate the Earth’s circumference to within one percent of the actual measurement.\n\nThroughout history, mapmakers have been able to provide detailed maps of small areas, but it wasn't until the 17th century that mapmakers could make accurate measurements over larger areas. At that time, a new technique of measuring distance called triangulation revolutionized mapmaking. To determine the distance to a far-off point, mapmakers first measured the distance between two relatively close points and then measured the angle between each of these two points and the distant point using a transit or a theodolite. Once these angles and the distance between the two baseline points were known, the distance to the far-off point could be calculated using geometry. \n\nOne of the first official uses of triangulation for mapmaking was in 1669 when King Louis XIV of France commissioned Jean Picard and Jean Dominique Cassini to map the coast of France. This first accurate measurement of France showed it to be significantly smaller than earlier maps did. The King is said to have declared, "Your work has cost me a large part of my State!" \n\n2.  In the northern hemisphere, latitude may be derived by measuring the angle made between the North Star and the horizon. Crude instruments to obtain this angle have existed for thousands of years and instruments like the sextant and octant, only slightly less precise than those available to us, were in use.\n\nLatitude may also be calculated by measuring the altitude of the sun, moon, or certain planets and stars above the horizon on known days and reading latitude from tables designed for that purpose. It was not much more difficult for the captains and early explorers to measure these altitudes with a sextant or octant and to calculate latitude using one of the three ephemerae or astronomical almanacs they carried. These contained tables showing the daily position of celestial bodies such as the sun, the moon, and key stars. \n\n3.  Longitudinal observations were prone to error because chronometers did not have quartz batteries to keep them running.  When it ran down, it had to be re-calibrated using local time: using observation of the sun's zenith or local "noon" and then setting the chronometer by estimating the current longitudinal position. Over the course of a trip, the small incremental errors produced by this became larger ones.\n\nThere were other methods of calculating longitude available to early explorers, using astronomical observation. But many astronomical readings had to be acquired over the course of a night in order to obtain sufficiently precise data to determine longitude. It was asking a lot for men exhausted by the rigors of their daily work, to spend three or four hours at night taking sightings of the moon and stars, recording observations, and making calculations by candlelight or firelight. It was only natural that errors would exist in data obtained in this manner. Even the most skilled astronomer or surveyor would have been hard pressed to make highly accurate observations under such circumstances.
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It is said that  when dinosaurs first appeared, the Earth was made up of one big continent. All the landmasses were joined together. This big continent is known as Pangaea.As time went by, Pangaea gradually broke apart into the landmasses we know today. First it separated into a northern and a southern continent. The southern continent, which included Australia, was known as Gondwana. During the Cretaceous Period, Gondwana gradually broke up into the present landmasses of Africa, South America, India, Antarctica, and Australia. Antarctica and Australia were the last continents to separate, starting about 100 million years ago. \n\nThe Antarctic was at the Earth's equator during the Cambrian period, roughly 500 million years ago. As the continents drifted atop the more liquid interior layers of the Earth, the Antarctic drifted south during the time of the dinosaurs (the Mesozoic Era) when it was attached to Australia. During that time, it had no glaciers, and housed many animals, including some dinosaurs. Over the millennia, Antarctica drifted farther south, separated completely from Australia, and is now located at the South Pole of the Earth. The fossils of first dinosaur were said to be found in Antartica.\n\nPaleontologists in Brazil reported of finding the oldest dinosaur so if that is the case, the first dinosaur could have first appeared in South America.\n\nBased on what has been described that the earth was just one continent, who will know which present continent it first appeared? It appeared and moved from here to there so fossils discovery in a certain place do not tell that such dinosaurs appeared in there as they were not confined in specific place.☺
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It was once thought that land on earth is stationary and that the continents had always been their current shape, even though they may have been covered by more water.\n\nMore recently however, it has been discovered that the continents were actually all one mass of land and at one point separated, floating apart on sheets of plate tectonics.  \n\nProof came quickly.  It is now easy to see the east coast of South America fitting into west Africa for instance.  Bones of related land-dwelling creatures were also found on the coastlines of the two distant continents.
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Ha, good one!  The ancients belived that the sky was a solid dome (firmament), and the stars, planets, and sun were all attached to it and spun around on rails, or glass spheres.  This was, of course, proved wrong long ago by Copernicus and Galileo, the dawn of the space age only confirmed that their theories were true.
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The continents are divided based on the geological and geographical locations. We have seven continents on our earth. Viz., Asia, North America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, Europe & South America.
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continents \n\nThe large parts of the surface of the Earth that rise above sea level. The seven major continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. \n\n\nContinents are made from the lightest rocks in the Earth. Some of these are also the oldest known rocks on Earth, with an age of 3.5 billion years, measured by radioactive dating.\nAccording to the theory of plate tectonics, continents move along piggy-back on the tectonic plates like rafts floating on water.\n\ntry this link for the best information =\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent
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Belief in a flat Earth is found in humankind's oldest writings. In early Mesopotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early Greek maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus. This theory was clearly rejected after colombus's expedition.
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Ptolemy came up with an early model (pre Galileo and pre Copurnicus) that was ingenious, but wrong.  He had the Earth at the center and all the planets (and the sun!) circling around it.
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The basic idea is that the earth's land mass was unified hundreds of millions of years ago, but has been gradually pulling apart since then.\nAnd large land masses are resting on huge plates. The plates bump against each other, and when one of them shifts,\nyou have an earthquake.\nThink of it like a jigsaw puzzle, but with continent-sized pieces.\n\nFor lots of pictures of plates, and faults, visit here:\nhttp://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/plate-tectonics.html
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The Ancient Greeks knew the world was round.  Their work in mathematics and geography allowed them to calculate the approximate curvature and circumference of the Earth.  The Romans also knew the world was round.  So much of the information from the Classical world was destroyed either during the burning of the library at Alexandria or during the many purges and book-burnings of the Dark Ages.  Much more information was hidden by the Church and forbidden.  Both the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration were about a return to the enlightened times of Classical Europe.  Christopher Columbus theorized that the Earth was not flat, and attempted to sail to Asia in 1492.  He thought he had reached Asia, but it turns out that the Earth was much larger than expected.  He simply re-discovered the Western Hemisphere.