In 1885 Melchior Neumayr deduced the existence of the Tethys Ocean from Mesozoic marine sediments and their distribution, calling his concept 'Zentrales Mittelmeer' and describing it as a Jurassic seaway that extended from the Caribbean to the Himalayas [REF].
In the decades that followed "mobilist" geologists regarded Tethys as a large trough between two supercontinents that lasted from the late Palaeozoic until continental fragments derived from Gondwana obliterated it.