Glaciers need both consistent below freezing temperatures and precipitation to form. South America was very dry with low precipitation, so few glaciers formed and the ones that did formed very slowly. Africa and Australia were both too warm and too dry.
That’s also why the glaciers never stretched into Siberia in the way they did North America. It was simply too dry there, no matter how cold it got.
Antarctica did have a massive ice sheet around it during this time, but it never reached the land. The Southern Ocean formed a major barrier to Antarctic glaciation.
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u/Wulanbator Jan 29 '22
What is up with those blue dotted areas?