The similarity between the geometry of the West African and South American coastlines is among one of the strongest natural observations supporting the plate tectonic paradigm. However, using classical plate tectonic approaches to model these conjugate transform margins results in a high degree of variability in palaeogeographic reconstructions. Using state-of-the-art 3D coupled thermo-mechanical numerical models, we simulate for the first time, crustal deformation at the onset of oceanisatio...