What role did the separation of the continents play in evolution?

Question

What role did the separation of the continents play in evolution?

Answer 1

The separation of the continents isolated biological populations of individual species from one another and prevented interbreeding.  This lead to evolutionary divergence between the  separated populations.  One example is found in monkeys.  There are both Old World monkeys and New World monkeys that have been separated since the opening of the southern Atlantic Ocean.   The monkeys' genomes diverged when interbreeding was prevented by the opening of the ocean.