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Pangaea or Pangea (/ p æ n ˈ dʒ iː ə / pan-JEE-ə) [1] was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. [2] It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana , Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 200 million years ...
The 3.48 Ga Dresser formation hosts microfossils of prokaryotic filaments in silica veins, the earliest fossil evidence of life on Earth, [70] but their origins may be volcanic. [ 71 ] 3.465-billion-year-old Australian Apex chert rocks may once have contained microorganisms , [ 72 ] [ 5 ] although the validity of these findings has been contested.
Pangaea's predecessor Gondwana is not considered a supercontinent under the first definition since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia and Siberia were separate at the time. [7] A future supercontinent, termed Pangaea Proxima, is hypothesized to form within the next 250 million years. [8]
Before it split into the continents we know today, Earth was home to just a single landmass, or "supercontinent," called Pangea. Over tens of millions of years, as the familiar story goes, these ...
Gondwana formed part of Pangaea for c. 150 Ma [31] Gondwana and Laurasia formed the Pangaea supercontinent during the Carboniferous. Pangaea began to break up in the Mid-Jurassic when the Central Atlantic opened. [32] In the western end of Pangaea, the collision between Gondwana and Laurasia closed the Rheic and Paleo-Tethys oceans.
Map of Earth during the Early Permian, around 285 million years ago, showing Central Pangean mountain range at equator. The Central Pangean Mountains were formed during the collision of Euramerica and northern Gondwana as part of the Variscan and Alleghanian orogenies, which began during the Carboniferous approximately 340 million years ago, and complete by the beginning of the Permian around ...
The continents themselves formed a near circle around the opening Paleo-Tethys Ocean, with the massive Panthalassic Ocean beyond. Gondwana covered the south polar region. To its northwest was Laurussia. These two continents slowly collided to form the core of Pangea. To the north of Laurussia lay Siberia and Amuria.
Their unusually shaped feet are quite similar to that of ungulates, and fossil evidence suggests that there once existed a larger diversity of elephant species whose body structure puts them in ...