The accidental orientation of the continents has a profound influence on life. A few million years ago, when the planet descended into its current ice age after its long slow decline from the greenhouse climate of the dinosaurs, the world was configured in a very peculiar way: namely, the way it’s configured now, with long north-south coastlines that extend from the tropics nearly to the poles. For example, the turnip-like South America and its North American thought bubble stand upright and span almost every latitude. This arrangement has been a lucky one for the animals trying to navigate a
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