page_title: Lemuria (continent)
section_title: Promulgation
hierarchical_section_title: Lemuria (continent) / Scientific origins / Promulgation
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Hypothetical sketch of the monophylitic origin and of the diffusion of the 12 varieties of men from Lemuria over the earth Abstract/medium: 1 print&#160;: lithograph&#160;; sheet 21.6 x 33.6 cm.
context_page_description: Lemuria, or Limuria, is a hypothetical lost land located in either the Indian or the Pacific Ocean, from a now-discredited 19th-century scientific theory. The idea was then adopted by the occultists of the time and consequently has been incorporated into pop culture. Some Tamil writers have associated it with Kumari Kandam, a mythical lost continent with an ancient Tamil civilization located south of present-day India in the Indian Ocean.
context_section_description: After gaining some acceptance within the scientific community, the concept of Lemuria began to appear in the works of other scholars. Ernst Haeckel, a Darwinian taxonomist, proposed Lemuria as an explanation for the absence of "missing link" fossil records. According to another source, Haeckel put forward this thesis prior to Sclater (but without using the name "Lemuria"). Locating the origins of the human species on this lost continent, he claimed the fossil record could not be found because it sank beneath the sea.
  Other scientists hypothesized that Lemuria had extended across parts of the Pacific Ocean, seeking to explain the distribution of various species across Asia and the Americas.
caption: Map describing the origins of "the 12 varieties of men" from Lemuria (1876)
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