I’m a bit doubtful of the animation they show in the article. There are active continental rift zones in East Africa and Asia, at lake Baikal, which doesn’t show any movement during the animation. The San Andreas fault isn’t shown having any movement in the animation either. Additionally, Europe and Africa are currently moving away from North and South America, but change direction in the animation so the four continents come together without explanation of data suggesting the direction reversal.

It seems like this is a “what if?” sort of thought experiment as opposed to based on actual data. I mean, even current direction of plates could change tomorrow in an unpredictable way, so there’s no knowing either way.

Not that it really matters in any case.