Alfred Wegener, shown here on a trip to Greenland in 1912 — 1913, proposed his ideas about continental drift as early as 1912, a concept later incorporated into the revolutionary theory of plate tectonics. (sciencenews.org)
But it wasn't until the 1960s that scientists put the pieces together in a comprehensive theory of plate tectonics. (sciencenews.org)
Such phrases are never offered up with respect to the theory of optics, the germ theory of disease, the atomic theory of matter, thermodynamic theory, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanical theory, the theory of plate tectonics, etc.; they only get trotted out with respect to evolution, and invariably by people who have no idea how scientists use the word «theory». (religion.blogs.cnn.com)