The Lost Continent of Lemuria or Mu, (used interchangeably) has long lived under the shadow of its more well-known relation, Atlantis. Therefore, it may come as a surprise that for a brief moment in history, Lemuria gained a greater acceptance within the scientific and scholarly community. In fact, Lemuria was not originally an idea originating from the occult world, or from lost Ancient Egyptian sources as was Plato’s Atlantis, but from the minds of leading scientific thinkers.

Ideal Landscape of Lemuria.—Drawn by Riou from Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men (1897) ( Public Domain )

Lemurian Footprints Crossing the Pacific?

In the 19th century, just when Darwin’s theory of evolution had achieved widespread acceptance, zoologists and evolutionary biologists observed a curious phenomenon: Across Madagascar, India, and the islands of the Pacific - lands separated by hundreds of miles of impassable oceans - lemurs were encountered.

Philip Lutley Sclater ( Public Domain )

In the late 1800s, Philip Sclater, an English zoologist and lawyer, was the first to make this observation, and proposed a theory that has since taken on a life of its own. Sclater, in concurrence with many other thinkers of the time, proposed that these landmasses, now separated by oceans, had once been a part of a larger continent in the Indian Ocean, submerged beneath the ocean. Sclater named this hypothetical missing continent ‘Lemuria’ after the lemur, and the name has stuck since then.

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel ( Public Domain )

Contemporary Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist and physician, arrived at the same conclusion and theorized that the missing link between ape and man had once inhabited this sunken land. Since then, the lost continent of Lemuria has fallen squarely outside the boundaries of science for seemingly sound reasons. Firstly, Sclater’s hypothesis of a missing continent at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, is a redundant explanation for the presence of lemurs and other terrestrial species on lands separated by oceans, as it is common knowledge that the continents had drifted to their present positions over millions of years. And secondly, no missing continent is needed to explain the lack of the intermediate forms, or the “missing link,” for such fossils have been found all over the African continent during the last century.

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Brad Yoon is a software engineer and writer. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and a minor in anthropology at UCLA. His jobs include developing software for an electronic medical records startup, a dating app, and a nursing home supplier. In his spare time, he researches and writes about lost civilizations and other ancient mysteries. He has presented his theory on Atlantis at CPAK 2014.

Top Image: Possible location for Lemuria. (Image creator: Liz Leafloor: Public Domain/Deriv)

By Brad Yoon