The Invisible Barrier Keeping Two Worlds Apart

The Invisible Barrier Keeping Two Worlds Apart

In between two of the islands of Indonesia, there’s an ancient line that is both real and…not real.

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References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1izJJk7Gkn7itpRb1dFwp7jzhMnpwx2F4NCOeOsvOvsw/edit?usp=sharing

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57 Responses

  1. Sachin Shukla says:

    Imagine not knowing anything about plate tectonics and realizing that some birds being missing on a random island implied the existence of continents that went underwater millions of years ago. Incredible.

    • aileen garcia says:

      @Merlin who said anything about holy books?

    • nunya nunya says:

      @Raymond Moreno QUICK say something groundbreaking someone ov note will talk about 40 years from now that noone ever thought ov before.

      i and the scientific community await!

    • Raymond Moreno says:

      Intuition sometimes supersedes scientific explanation. Not that deep.

    • nunya nunya says:

      imagine being able to use your own thoughts to discribe the world around you and not limited by the vocabulary ov your peers… incredible

  2. zeroyuKING says:

    In Indonesia, we were taught about one other line: Weber’s line. It’s basically a line east of Wallace’s line (between Sulawesi and Moluccas iirc) which separates the Australia + Papua plate with the transitionary islands. So unlike Wallace’s only 2 zones (Asia/Sunda – Australia/Sahul) it’s now three zones (Asia – Transitionary – Australia)

    • MossyMozart says:

      @Roman Macias – Those dramatic tectonic plate movements happened way before the Homo species started trekking the globe. People movements are very recent; plates move far more slowly in deep time, only inches at a time.

    • Adriani Sunuddin says:

      Saya senang membaca komentar netizen +62 yang “nerdy” dan informatif. Semoga akan lebih banyak yang demikian

    • Vlad Dracul says:

      Sulawesi certainly is a special case as it not only has species from the regions on both sides of the Wallace line but also a few endemic ones.

    • NotusNeo says:

      ​@James Byrne usually in middle and high school science class

    • Humans are not tofu says:

      If I remember correctly between these two lines lived some bizzare looking animals like the anoa, babirusa, tapir. I don’t remember why they are the way they are, I think it’d make a good new video idea for pbs eons

  3. Spennie says:

    Mr Wallace doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He’s a giant.

  4. liam mcginnis says:

    Imagine trying to describe to describe to someone from 500 years ago that the movement of rocks creates an invisible line that decides what type of food is available

    • Greedy Orange says:

      tooo ze pyre wif uuuu

    • CitizenMio says:

      Smart people would understand and agree if you showed them the evidence. The rest would call you insane and possibly attempt to do you bodily harm.
      So really, very little has changed.

    • Casti 3r3h says:

      what a good way to put it man, just thinking about it frustrates me and even if I put myself in the shoes of the audience I don’t think I can believe it lol

    • JackkyBoi says:

      @liam mcginnis – How would you know that 500yrs ago unless you’re a witch? Lmao

    • American Dissident says:

      @Jaymo Biggety If we just ignored them, then they’d disappear. It’s not there are a lot of them.

  5. Sander van Koetsveld says:

    I’m a Dutch biology teacher on holiday in Bali. Currently staying at the coastal village Amed, on the far east side of the island. Looking across the exact Wallace line described in this video, at the island of Lombok. All while watching this video while the sun rises on the horizon, quite close to my sight of Lombok. This was a delightful video with perfect timing.

    • Gabriela Fanelli says:

      If you have the time, go on a free dive course in Nusa Penida!! Just finished one 3 weeks ago. It was hell for me but so much worth it, philosphy meets biology meets Le Grand Bleu

    • flamencoprof says:

      @StoneTheCrow This channel doesn’t have any content

    • Lukasz Bien says:

      @Shalenka The Singer It looked more like a spill of waste water from some stream – it happened very early in the morning after almost entire night of rain…

    • Shalenka The Singer says:

      ​@Lukasz Bien really?? I live more South near candidasa and started noticing oil spills since last week

    • Lukasz Bien says:

      @Rachmy Hamdiyati We’ve been back over a day ago, from 3+ week trip, most of it in Lombok – most memorable place we stayed was village of Loyok (during Ramadan I might add) and Selong Belanak – we will be back next year. Great community and beautiful island.

  6. Elisa Llewellyn-Sendik says:

    Wow, I hadn’t realized Plate Tectonic science was so young! Much like the science, you also have influenced the way we see the world by working so hard to share awesome discoveries and ideas, Blake.

  7. Grimlock1 says:

    My geology prof was doing her thesis defense in the late 60’s. One people on the panel asked her a question about tectonics but one of the other members took issue with that. So two members of the panel that was convened to determine if my future professor should get her doctorate in geology… started arguing with each other, and my prof just stood their quietly, letting them run out the clock.

    • Yakko Benefiel says:

      @Helen Tee This is what angered me so greatly in junior high. I went to junior high at that school in Michigan where they got in trouble for teaching creationism, no, im sorry, they called it “intelligent design” (which despite being really frustrating was hilarious when the class clown would invariably write a paper about how we were designed by aliens who had to run away to fight an alien war that they eventually lost, but were kind enough caretakers to hide our little blue ball from their vanquishers… It was hilarious, she couldn’t flunk him because he used all the points they taught for intelligent design.) but despite that one funny story it was infuriating. There is a difference, theories need actual evidence, The burden of proof is on the one making the theory. It also confused the hell out of the class because the word “Theory” has a completely different meaning in the scientific community than it does in day to day speech. The later it’s more like “I have an idea” while the former is “Okay, this is as close to fact as we can get in the scientific community. It’s a law pretty much. If for some reason new evidence upends it, we’ll change it” emphasis on NEW EVIDENCE, holy books are neither new nor are they evidence. /endrant

    • D. DeForest says:

      So that was an automatic pass? 😀

    • John Doe says:

      I remember as a kid being told all kinds of weird phenomena that didn’t make sense–e.g. that the magnetic poles had “migrated” all over the place as proven by iron filings. Then plate techtonics became “accepted” when I was in college and it all came together (so to speak). It was also a lesson in Kuhnian scientific revolutions–there’s always a pile of data that doesn’t fit the paradigm, until someone comes up with a better one.

    • gpwcowboy says:

      ​@L’Homme Peignoir no matter how many centuries it takes, right professor?

  8. Vincent Chen says:

    been following your channel since 4 or 5 years ago. Seeing my country being discussed in this video is unbelievable. Anyway, here in Indonesia, the concept of Wallace Line had been introduced since elementary school. Most of us didn’t even understand what Wallace Line is. I think Eons has done a great job explaining the Wallace Line.

    • K F says:

      @runsun Maybe because wallace line is exclusively something about Indonesia, while darwin’s natural selection is not, and it’s still debatable. I remember around 10 years ago, darwin’s theory is explained as one of the many theories of evolution, and not the final explanation for it.

    • Elbert Lim says:

      I already forget if I learned about it at school before 🤣

    • Squirrel Attackspidy says:

      It’s what he says to grommet.

    • roflcopterIII says:

      ​@Alvin Valgar exactly. I knew a lot of folks with cockatoos for pets in java that I’m guessing must have originally come from somewhere in eastern indonesia

  9. StuffandThings says:

    Indonesia is easily one of the most biologically fascinating places on the planet, with such tectonic complexity, a dizzying number of islands, land on two continents and a myriad of microcontinents and large islands in the region of Wallacea. Not to mention all the volcanism and mountain ranges, including some impressive calderas and lots of cloud forest! It deserves so much more attention, especially compared to more mainstream rainforest like the Amazon or even the Congo. Such a shame that so much is getting deforested, especially on the side of the Sunda shelf. Someday I hope to visit what’s left of the rainforest there.

    • MossyMozart says:

      @Me Here – Nobody “ignores” the deforestation of Indonesia. It is also up to Indonesians to work against it. And what do vegans have to do with it? Non-vegans are just as worried!

    • Kantoor handook says:

      Eco-tourism yall, honestly visit indonesia, especially for its nature of course, the biggest invisible thing on earth i dare to say

    • Pustaka Rileks says:

      ​​@MakiMaki yeah, while i’m in west sumatra by toll road, all what can i see is palm trees, its sad 😢 and so hot and dry

    • MakiMaki says:

      @John Chevski Yeahhh but… That’s still sad to see, not to mention the forest is pretty much shrinking.

    • John Chevski says:

      Visit my family in South Sumatra by bus last year, it’s palm oil trees as far as the eye can see. If you have time and money it’s worth to visit, there’s still plenty forest left where you can see elephant and orangutan walk around on one side and then giant bird and tree kangaroo on the other side.

  10. Dylan Cooper says:

    Blake being born in the late 60’s is as much of a revelation to me as plate tectonics would be to Wallace.. I wouldn’t have thought him a day older than 1975 at the oldest.

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