land bridge

Also land·bridge

noun

1. Geology.,  an actual or hypothetical strip of land, subject to submergence, that connects adjacent continental landmasses and serves as a route of dispersal for plants and animals.

   a prehistoric land bridge between Asia and North America.

2. a transcontinental rail route between countries, as those in Europe and East Asia, considered faster and less costly than all-sea routes.

land bridge

noun

1. (in zoogeography) a connecting tract of land between two continents, enabling animals to pass from one continent to the other

Word History and Origins

Origin of land bridge¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

"Every fall, billions of birds pour south through the narrow land bridge of Central America," said Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, director of Conservation Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and co-author of the study.

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Both envisioned a land bridge burying La Cienega for nearly the length of the park.

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Scientists believe that Khankhuuluu, or one of its relatives, crossed a land bridge into North America, where it evolved into the formidable apex predator Tyrannosaurs.

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He called it “a map of a blessing,” with Israel and its future Arab partners such as Saudi Arabia forming a land bridge connecting Asia and Europe, crisscrossed by rail lines, energy lines, and fiber optic cables.

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"Our archaeological discovery has unveiled that this now-idyllic region once potentially offered a vital land bridge for human movement during the Pleistocene era -- when sea levels dropped and the now-submerged landscape was briefly exposed," explains Dr. Göknur Karahan, from the Department of Archaeology-Prehistory, at Hacettepe University, in Turkey, who was part of a fully female team of expert archaeologists from the country.

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