Gondwana

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Gondwana
Zealandia
Tectonic platesAfrican Plate
Antarctic Plate
Indo-Australian Plate
South American Plate

Gondwana (

Indian Subcontinent
.

Gondwana was formed by the

Euramerica during the Carboniferous to form Pangea. It began to separate from northern Pangea (Laurasia) during the Triassic, and started to fragment during the Early Jurassic (around 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving the separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene (from around 66 to 23 million years ago (Ma)). Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia, and Siberia were separated from it.[4] To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see § Name), it is also commonly called Gondwanaland.[5]

Regions that were part of Gondwana shared

zoological
elements that persist to the present day.

Name

Distribution of four Permian and Triassic fossil groups used as biogeographic evidence for continental drift, and land bridging

The continent of Gondwana was named by the Austrian scientist Eduard Suess, after the region in central India of the same name, which is derived from Sanskrit for "forest of the Gonds".[6] The name had been previously used in a geological context, first by H. B. Medlicott in 1872,[7] from which the Gondwana sedimentary sequences (Permian-Triassic) are also described.

Some scientists prefer the term "Gondwanaland" to make a clear distinction between the region and the supercontinent.[8]

Formation

Eastern Gondwana. 620 to 550 Ma post-collisional extension of the East African Orogeny in blue and 570 to 530 Ma collisional metamorphism of the Kuunga orogeny in red.[9]

The assembly of Gondwana was a protracted process during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic, which remains incompletely understood because of the lack of paleo-magnetic data. Several

Malagasy Orogeny in southern Madagascar) (550 Ma), the collision between East Gondwana and East Africa in two steps, and the Brasiliano orogeny (660 to 530 Ma), the successive collision between South American and African cratons.[10]

The last stages of Gondwanan assembly overlapped with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean between Laurentia and western Gondwana.[11] During this interval, the Cambrian explosion occurred. Laurentia was docked against the western shores of a united Gondwana for a brief period near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, forming the short-lived and still disputed supercontinent Pannotia.[12]

The

Antongil Block in far eastern Madagascar, the Seychelles, and the Napier and Rayner Complexes in East Antarctica). The Azania continent[13] (much of central Madagascar, the Horn of Africa and parts of Yemen
and Arabia) was an island in the Mozambique Ocean.

Reconstruction showing final stages of assembly of Gondwana, 550 Mya

The continent Australia/Mawson was still separated from India, eastern Africa, and Kalahari by c. 600 Ma, when most of western Gondwana had already been amalgamated. By c. 550 Ma, India had reached its Gondwanan position, which initiated the Kuunga orogeny (also known as the Pinjarra orogeny). Meanwhile, on the other side of the newly forming Africa, Kalahari collided with Congo and Rio de la Plata which closed the Adamastor Ocean. c. 540–530 Ma, the closure of the Mozambique Ocean brought India next to Australia–East Antarctica, and both North and South China were in proximity to Australia.[14]

As the rest of Gondwana formed, a complex series of orogenic events assembled the eastern parts of Gondwana (eastern Africa, Arabian-Nubian Shield, Seychelles, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, East Antarctica, and Australia) c. 750 to 530 Ma. First the Arabian-Nubian Shield collided with eastern Africa (in the Kenya-Tanzania region) in the East African Orogeny c.750 to 620 Ma. Then Australia and East Antarctica were merged with the remaining Gondwana c. 570 to 530 Ma in the Kuunga Orogeny.[15]

The later Malagasy orogeny at about 550–515 Mya affected Madagascar, eastern East Africa and southern India. In it, Neoproterozoic India collided with the already combined Azania and Congo–Tanzania–Bangweulu Block, suturing along the Mozambique Belt.[16]

The 18,000 km-long (11,000 mi) Terra Australis Orogen developed along Gondwana's western, southern, and eastern margins.[17] Proto-Gondwanan Cambrian arc belts from this margin have been found in eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Antarctica. Though these belts formed a continuous arc chain, the direction of subduction was different between the Australian-Tasmanian and New Zealand-Antarctica arc segments.[18]

Peri-Gondwana development: Paleozoic rifts and accretions

Many terranes were accreted to Eurasia during Gondwana's existence, but the Cambrian or Precambrian origin of many of these terranes remains uncertain. For example, some Palaeozoic terranes and microcontinents that now make up Central Asia, often called the "Kazakh" and "Mongolian terranes", were progressively amalgamated into the continent Kazakhstania in the Late Silurian. Whether these blocks originated on the shores of Gondwana is not known.[19]

In the Early Palaeozoic, the Armorican terrane, which today form large parts of France, was part of either Peri-Gondwana or core Gondwana; the Rheic Ocean closed in front of it and the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean opened behind it. Precambrian rocks from the Iberian Peninsula suggest that it, too, formed part of core Gondwana before its detachment as an orocline in the Variscan orogeny close to the Carboniferous–Permian boundary.[20]

Journey of the Asian blocks from Gondwana to Laurasia, Late Ordovician to Early Jurassic (450, 350, 300, and 200 Mya).
View centred on 0°S,105°E.

South-east Asia was made of Gondwanan and

West Burma, Woyla terranes opened the Neo-Tethys Ocean; Lhasa collided with Asia during the Early Cretaceous, and West Burma and Woyla during the Late Cretaceous.[21]

Gondwana's long, northern margin remained a mostly passive margin throughout the Palaeozoic. The Early Permian opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean along this margin produced a long series of terranes, many of which were and still are being deformed in the

Himalaya Orogeny. These terranes are, from Turkey to north-eastern India: the Taurides in southern Turkey; the Lesser Caucasus Terrane in Georgia; the Sanand, Alborz, and Lut terranes in Iran; the Mangysglak or Kopetdag Terrane in the Caspian Sea; the Afghan Terrane; the Karakorum Terrane in northern Pakistan; and the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes in Tibet. The Permian–Triassic widening of the Neo-Tethys pushed all these terranes across the Equator and over to Eurasia.[22]

Southwestern accretions

During the Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic phase of the

Appalachians southwards.[25] Chilenia terrane accreted later against Cuyania.[26] The collision of the Patagonian terrane with the southwestern Gondwanan occurred in the late Paleozoic. Subduction-related igneous rocks from beneath the North Patagonian Massif have been dated at 320–330 million years old, indicating that the subduction process initiated in the early Carboniferous.[27] This was relatively short lived (lasting about 20 million years), and initial contact of the two landmasses occurred in the mid-Carboniferous,[27][28] with broader collision during the early Permian.[28] In the Devonian, an island arc named Chaitenia accreted to Patagonia in what is now south-central Chile.[29]

Gondwana as part of Pangaea: Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic

Gondwana formed part of Pangaea for c. 150 Ma[30]

Gondwana and Laurasia formed the Pangaea supercontinent during the Carboniferous. Pangaea began to break up in the Mid-Jurassic when the Central Atlantic opened.[31]

In the western end of Pangaea, the collision between Gondwana and Laurasia closed the Rheic and Palaeo-Tethys oceans. The obliquity of this closure resulted in the docking of some northern terranes in the Marathon, Ouachita, Alleghanian, and Variscan orogenies, respectively. Southern terranes, such as Chortis and Oaxaca, on the other hand, remained largely unaffected by the collision along the southern shores of Laurentia. Some Peri-Gondwanan terranes, such as Yucatán and Florida, were buffered from collisions by major promontories. Other terranes, such as Carolina and Meguma, were directly involved in the collision. The final collision resulted in the Variscan-Appalachian Mountains, stretching from present-day Mexico to southern Europe. Meanwhile, Baltica collided with Siberia and Kazakhstania which resulted in the Uralian orogeny and Laurasia. Pangaea was finally amalgamated in the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian, but the oblique forces continued until Pangaea began to rift in the Triassic.[32]

In the eastern end, collisions occurred slightly later. The

Indochina blocks rifted from Gondwana during the middle Paleozoic and opened the Proto-Tethys Ocean. North China docked with Mongolia and Siberia during the Carboniferous–Permian, followed by South China. The Cimmerian blocks then rifted from Gondwana to form the Palaeo-Thethys and Neo-Tethys oceans in the Late Carboniferous, and docked with Asia during the Triassic and Jurassic. Western Pangaea began to rift while the eastern end was still being assembled.[33]

The formation of Pangaea and its mountains had a tremendous impact on global climate and sea levels, which resulted in glaciations and continent-wide sedimentation. In North America, the base of the Absaroka sequence coincides with the Alleghanian and Ouachita orogenies and are indicative of a large-scale change in the mode of deposition far away from the Pangaean orogenies. Ultimately, these changes contributed to the Permian–Triassic extinction event and left large deposits of hydrocarbons, coal, evaporite, and metals.[34]

The break-up of Pangaea began with the Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) between South America, Africa, North America, and Europe. CAMP covered more than seven million square kilometres over a few million years, reached its peak at c. 200 Ma, and coincided with the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event.[35] The reformed Gondwanan continent was not precisely the same as that which had existed before Pangaea formed; for example, most of Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama is underlain by rocks that were originally part of Gondwana, but this region stayed attached to North America when the Central Atlantic opened.[36]

Break-up

Mesozoic

Antarctica, the centre of the supercontinent, shared boundaries with all other Gondwana continents and the fragmentation of Gondwana propagated clockwise around it. The break-up was the result of the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar igneous province, one of the Earth's most extensive large igneous provinces (LIP) c. 200 to 170 Ma, but the oldest magnetic anomalies between South America, Africa, and Antarctica are found in what is now the southern Weddell Sea where initial break-up occurred during the Jurassic c. 180 to 160 Ma.[37]

Opening of western Indian Ocean

The first ocean floor formed between Madagascar and Africa c. 150 Ma (left) and between India and Madagascar c. 70 Ma (right).

Gondwana began to break up in the early Jurassic following the extensive and fast emplacement of the Karoo-Ferrar flood basalts c. 184 Ma. Before the Karoo plume initiated rifting between Africa and Antarctica, it separated a series of smaller continental blocks from Gondwana's southern, Proto-Pacific margin (along what is now the Transantarctic Mountains): the Antarctic Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land, Zealandia, and Thurston Island; the Falkland Islands and Ellsworth–Whitmore Mountains (in Antarctica) were rotated 90° in opposite directions; and South America south of the Gastre Fault (often referred to as Patagonia) was pushed westward.[38] The history of the Africa-Antarctica break-up can be studied in great detail in the fracture zones and magnetic anomalies flanking the Southwest Indian Ridge.[39]

The Madagascar block and the Mascarene Plateau, stretching from the Seychelles to Réunion, were broken off India, causing Madagascar and Insular India to be separate landmasses: elements of this break-up nearly coincide with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The India–Madagascar–Seychelles separations appear to coincide with the eruption of the Deccan basalts, whose eruption site may survive as the Réunion hotspot. The Seychelles and the Maldives are now separated by the Central Indian Ridge.

During the initial break-up in the Early Jurassic a

marine transgression swept over the Horn of Africa covering Triassic planation surfaces with sandstone, limestone, shale, marls and evaporites.[40][41]

Opening of eastern Indian Ocean

The first ocean floor formed between India and Antarctica c. 120 Ma (left). The Kerguelen LIP began to form the Ninety East ridge c. 80 Ma (centre). The Indian and Australian plates merged c. 40 Ma (right).

East Gondwana, comprising Antarctica, Madagascar, India, and Australia, began to separate from Africa. East Gondwana then began to break up c. 132.5 to 96 Ma when India moved northwest from Australia-Antarctica.[42] The Indian Plate and the Australian Plate are now separated by the Capricorn Plate and its diffuse boundaries.[43] During the opening of the Indian Ocean, the Kerguelen hotspot first formed the Kerguelen Plateau on the Antarctic Plate c. 118 to 95 Ma and then the Ninety East Ridge on the Indian Plate at c. 100 Ma.[44] The Kerguelen Plateau and the Broken Ridge, the southern end of the Ninety East Ridge, are now separated by the Southeast Indian Ridge.

Separation between Australia and East Antarctica began c. 132 Ma with seafloor spreading occurring c. 96 Ma. A shallow seaway developed over the South Tasman Rise during the Early Cenozoic and as oceanic crust started to separate the continents during the Eocene c. 35.5 Ma global ocean temperature dropped significantly.[45] A dramatic shift from arc- to rift magmatism c. 100 Ma separated Zealandia, including New Zealand, the Campbell Plateau, Chatham Rise, Lord Howe Rise, Norfolk Ridge, and New Caledonia, from West Antarctica c. 84 Ma.[46]

Opening of South Atlantic Ocean

At c. 126 Ma (left) the Falkland Plateau began to slide past southern Africa and the Paraná-Etendeka LIP had opened the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At c. 83 Ma (right) the South Atlantic was fully opened and the Romanche Fracture Zone was forming near the Equator.

The opening of the South Atlantic Ocean divided West Gondwana (South America and Africa), but there is a considerable debate over the exact timing of this break-up. Rifting propagated from south to north along Triassic–Early Jurassic lineaments, but intra-continental rifts also began to develop within both continents in Jurassic–Cretaceous sedimentary basins, subdividing each continent into three sub-plates. Rifting began c. 190 Ma at Falkland latitudes, forcing Patagonia to move relative to the still static remainder of South America and Africa, and this westward movement lasted until the Early Cretaceous 126.7 Ma. From there rifting propagated northward during the Late Jurassic c. 150 Ma or Early Cretaceous c. 140 Ma most likely forcing dextral movements between sub-plates on either side. South of the Walvis Ridge and Rio Grande Rise the Paraná and Etendeka magmatics resulted in further ocean-floor spreading c. 130 to 135 Ma and the development of rifts systems on both continents, including the Central African Rift System and the Central African Shear Zone which lasted until c. 85 Ma. At Brazilian latitudes spreading is more difficult to assess because of the lack of palaeo-magnetic data, but rifting occurred in Nigeria at the Benue Trough c. 118 Ma. North of the Equator the rifting began after 120.4 Ma and continued until c. 100 to 96 Ma.[47]

Early Andean orogeny

The first phases of

South Atlantic Ocean.[48] Another change related to mid-Cretaceous plate tectonic rearrangement was the change of subduction direction of the oceanic lithosphere that went from having south-east motion to having a north-east motion at about 90 million years ago.[50] While subduction direction changed, it remained oblique (and not perpendicular) to the coast of South America, and the direction change affected several subduction zone-parallel faults including Atacama, Domeyko and Liquiñe-Ofqui.[49][50]

Cenozoic

Insular India began to collide with Asia circa 70 Ma, forming the Indian subcontinent, since which more than 1,400 km (870 mi) of crust has been absorbed by the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. During the Cenozoic, the orogen resulted in the construction of the Tibetan Plateau between the Tethyan Himalayas in the south and the Kunlun and Qilian mountains in the north.[51]

Later, South America was connected to North America via the Isthmus of Panama, cutting off a circulation of warm water and thereby making the Arctic colder,[52] as well as allowing the Great American Interchange.

The break-up of Gondwana can be said to continue in eastern Africa at the

Nubian, and Somali plates, resulting in rifting in the Red Sea and East African Rift.[53]

Australia–Antarctica separation

In the Early Cenozoic, Australia was still connected to Antarctica c. 35–40° south of its current location and both continents were largely unglaciated. A rift between the two developed but remained an embayment until the Eocene-Oligocene boundary when the Circumpolar Current developed and the glaciation of Antarctica began.[54]

Australia was warm and wet during the Palaeocene and dominated by rainforest. The opening of the Tasman Gateway at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (33 Ma) resulted in abrupt cooling but the Oligocene became a period of high rainfall with swamps in southeast Australia. During the Miocene, a warm and humid climate developed with pockets of rainforests in central Australia, but before the end of the period, colder and drier climate severely reduced this rainforest. A brief period of increased rainfall in the Pliocene was followed by drier climate which favoured grassland. Since then, the fluctuation between wet interglacial periods and dry glacial periods has developed into the present arid regime. Australia has thus experienced various climate changes over a 15-million-year period with a gradual decrease in precipitation.[55]

The Tasman Gateway between Australia and Antarctica began to open c. 40 to 30 Ma. Palaeontological evidence indicates the

Iceland plume, contributed to global warming. During the Miocene, the Drake Passage began to widen, and as water flow between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula increased, the renewed ACC resulted in cooler global climate.[57]

Since the Eocene, the northward movement of the Australian Plate has resulted in an

arc-continent collision with the Philippine and Caroline plates and the uplift of the New Guinea Highlands.[58] From the Oligocene to the late Miocene, the climate in Australia, dominated by warm and humid rainforests before this collision, began to alternate between open forest and rainforest before the continent became the arid or semiarid landscape it is today.[59]

Biogeography

Banksia, a grevilleoid Proteaceae, is an example of a plant from a family with a Gondwanan distribution

The adjective "Gondwanan" is in common use in biogeography when referring to patterns of distribution of living organisms, typically when the organisms are restricted to two or more of the now-discontinuous regions that were once part of Gondwana, including the Antarctic flora.[8] For example, the plant family Proteaceae, known from all continents in the Southern Hemisphere, has a "Gondwanan distribution" and is often described as an archaic, or relict, lineage. The distributions in the Proteaceae is, nevertheless, the result of both Gondwanan rafting and later oceanic dispersal.[60]

Post-Cambrian diversification

During the

End-Ordovician extinction, which resulted in 27% of marine invertebrate families and 57% of genera going extinct, occurred during this shift from Ice House to Hot House.[62]

Reconstructions of (left) a Late Silurian Cooksonia, the first land plant, and (right) a Late Devonian Archaeopteris, the first large tree

By the end of the Ordovician,

rhyniophytes, had colonised the tropics. The former evolved into the lycopods that were to dominate the Gondwanan vegetation over a long period, whilst the latter evolved into horsetails and gymnosperms. Most of Gondwana was located far from the Equator during this period and remained a lifeless and barren landscape.[63]

West Gondwana drifted north during the

herbaceous lycopod to evolve from the zosterophylls. During the Devonian, giant club mosses replaced the Baragwanathia Flora, introducing the first trees, and by the Late Devonian this first forest was accompanied by the progymnosperms, including the first large trees Archaeopteris.[64] The Late Devonian extinction probably also resulted in osteolepiform fishes evolving into the amphibian tetrapods, the earliest land vertebrates, in Greenland and Russia. The only traces of this evolution in Gondwana are amphibian footprints and a single jaw from Australia.[65]

The closure of the Rheic Ocean and the formation of Pangaea in the Carboniferous resulted in the rerouting of ocean currents that initiated an Ice House period. As Gondwana began to rotate clockwise, Australia shifted south to more temperate latitudes. An ice cap initially covered most of southern Africa and South America but spread to eventually cover most of the supercontinent, save for northernmost Africa-South America and eastern Australia. Giant lycopod and horsetail forests continued to evolve in tropical Laurasia together with a diversified assemblage of true insects. In Gondwana, in contrast, ice and, in Australia, volcanism decimated the Devonian flora to a low-diversity seed fern flora – the pteridophytes were increasingly replaced by the gymnosperms which were to dominate until the Mid-Cretaceous. Australia, however, was still located near the Equator during the Early Carboniferous, and during this period, temnospondyl and lepospondyl amphibians and the first amniote reptilians evolved, all closely related to the Laurasian fauna, but spreading ice eventually drove these animals away from Gondwana entirely.[66]

Still extant Triassic conifers (Agathis, Wollemia, Araucaria, and Podocarpus) that once dominated Gondwana

The Gondwana ice sheet melted, and sea levels dropped during the Permian and Triassic global warming. During this period, the extinct

horsetails dominated the wetlands of Gondwana in the Early Permian. Insects co-evolved with glossopterids across Gondwana and diversified with more than 200 species in 21 orders by the Late Permian, many known from South Africa and Australia. Beetles and cockroaches remained minor elements in this fauna. Tetrapod fossils from the Early Permian have only been found in Laurasia but they became common in Gondwana later during the Permian. The arrival of the therapsids resulted in the first plant-vertebrate-insect ecosystem.[67]

Modern diversification

During the Mid- to Late Triassic, hot-house conditions coincided with a peak in biodiversity – the end-Permian extinction was enormous and so was the radiation that followed. Two families of conifers,

sphenophytes, saw a gradual decline during the Triassic while ferns, though never dominant, managed to diversify.[68]

The brief period of icehouse conditions during the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event had a dramatic impact on dinosaurs but left plants largely unaffected. The Jurassic was mostly one of hot-house conditions and, while vertebrates managed to diversify in this environment, plants have left little evidence of such development, apart from Cheiroleidiacean conifers and Caytoniales and other groups of seed ferns. In terms of biomass, the Jurassic flora was dominated by conifer families and other gymnosperms that had evolved during the Triassic. The Pteridophytes that had dominated during the Palaeozoic were now marginalised, except for ferns. In contrast to Laurentia, very few insect fossils have been found in Gondwana, to a considerable extent because of widespread deserts and volcanism. While plants had a cosmopolitan distribution, dinosaurs evolved and diversified in a pattern that reflects the Jurassic break-up of Pangaea.[69]

The Cretaceous saw the arrival of the

Santana Formation in Brazil, the Koonwarra Lake fauna in Australia, and the Orapa diamond mine in Botswana.[70]

Dinosaurs continued to prosper but, as the angiosperm diversified, conifers, bennettitaleans and pentoxylaleans disappeared from Gondwana c. 115 Ma together with the specialised herbivorous ornithischians, whilst generalist browsers, such as several families of sauropodomorph Saurischia, prevailed. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event killed off all dinosaurs except birds, but plant evolution in Gondwana was hardly affected.[70] Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of non-therian mammals with a Gondwanan distribution (South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Zealandia and Antarctica) during the Late Cretaceous and Palaeogene.[71] Xenarthra and Afrotheria, two placental clades, are of Gondwanan origin and probably began to evolve separately c. 105 Ma when Africa and South America separated.[72]

The plant genus Nothofagus provides a good example of a taxon with a Gondwanan distribution, having originated in the supercontinent and existing in present-day Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and South America's Southern Cone. Fossils have also been found in Antarctica.[73]

The

Corynocarpus laevigatus, and Laurelia novae-zelandiae. New Caledonia and New Zealand became separated from Australia by continental drift
85 million years ago. The islands still retain plants that originated in Gondwana and spread to the Southern Hemisphere continents later.

See also

  • Continental drift, the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other
  • Australasian realm
  • Gondwana Rainforests of Australia
  • The Great Escarpment of Southern Africa
  • Plate tectonics, a theory which describes the large-scale motions of Earth's lithosphere
  • South Polar dinosaurs
    , which proliferated during the Early Cretaceous (145–100 Mya) while Australia was still linked to Antarctica to form East Gondwana
  • Gondwana Research, a scholarly journal including Gondwana among its emphases

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Gondwana". Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Group. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  2. ^ Meert & Van der Voo 1997, Abstract
  3. ^ Torsvik & Cocks 2013, Abstract
  4. S2CID 140601854
    .
  5. ^ "Gondwanaland". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  6. .
  7. ^ Suess 1885, p. 768: "Wir nennen es Gondwána-Land, nach der gemeinsamen alten Gondwána-Flora, … "(We name it Gondwána-Land, after the common ancient flora of Gondwána …)
  8. ^ a b McLoughlin 2001, Gondwana or Gondwanaland?, pp. 272–273
  9. ^ Meert 2003, Fig. 10, p. 19
  10. ^ Meert & Van der Voo 1997, Introduction, pp. 223–226
  11. ^ Miashita & Yamamoto 1996
  12. ^ Meert & Van der Voo 1997, p. 229
  13. ^ Defined but not named in Collins & Pisarevsky 2005: "Azania" was a Greek name for the East African coast
  14. ^ Li et al. 2008, The birth of Gondwanaland (600–530 Ma), p. 201
  15. ^ Meert 2003, Abstract
  16. ^ Grantham, Maboko & Eglington 2003
  17. ^ Cawood 2005, Definition and Tectonic Framework, pp. 4–6
  18. ^ Münker & Crawford 2000, Abstract
  19. ^ Torsvik & Cocks 2013, Marginal microcontinents and terranes, p. 1008
  20. ^ Torsvik & Cocks 2013, Southern Europe, pp. 1008–1009
  21. ^ McLoughlin 2001, Cimmerian terranes, p. 278
  22. ^ Torsvik & Cocks 2013, South-central and eastern Asia
  23. ^ Cawood 2005, Peri-Gondwanan continental basement assemblages, pp. 15–16
  24. ^ Rapalini 2001; Rapalini 1998, pp. 105–106
  25. ^ Dalla Salda et al. 1998, Abstract; Vujovich, van Staal & Davis 2004, Conclusions, p. 1053
  26. .
  27. ^ .
  28. ^ .
  29. .
  30. ^ Li et al. 2008, Abstract
  31. ^ Torsvik & Van der Voo 2002, Data selection and reconstruction fits, p. 772
  32. ^ Blakey 2003, Assembly of Western Pangaea: Carboniferous–Permian, pp. 453–454
  33. ^ Blakey 2003, Assembly of Eastern Pangaea: Late Permian–Jurassic, p. 454
  34. ^ Blakey 2003, Summary: significance of Pangaean events, pp. 454–455
  35. ^ Marzoli et al. 1999, Abstract
  36. ^ "Gondwana Remnants in Alabama And Georgia: Uchee Is An 'Exotic' Peri-Gondwanan Arc Terrane, Not Part of Laurentia". ScienceDaily. 4 February 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  37. ^ Jokat et al. 2003, Introduction, pp. 1–2
  38. ^ Encarnación et al. 1996, Early rifting and Gondwana breakup, pp. 537–538
  39. ^ Royer et al. 1988, Figg. 7 a–j, pp. 248–257
  40. .
  41. .
  42. ^ Powell, Roots & Veevers 1988, Abstract
  43. ^ DeMets, Gordon & Royer 2005, Introduction; Fig. 1, p. 446
  44. ^ Müller, Royer & Lawver 1993, Model results, pp. 277–278
  45. ^ McLoughlin 2001, East Antarctica–Australia, p. 280
  46. ^ McLoughlin 2001, West Antarctica–Tasmania, p. 280
  47. ^ Seton et al. 2012, South Atlantic, pp. 217–218
  48. ^ a b c Ramos 2009, Abstract
  49. ^ a b c d e Charrier, Pinto & Rodríguez 2006, pp. 45–46
  50. ^ a b Hoffmann-Rothe et al. 2006
  51. ^ Yin & Harrison 2000, Abstract
  52. ^ Luyendyk, Forsyth & Phillips 1972, Abstract
  53. ^ Jestin, Huchon & Gaulier 1994, Abstract
  54. ^ Martin 2006, Palaeogeography, pp. 538–539
  55. ^ Martin 2006, Conclusions, pp. 557–558
  56. ^ Lagabrielle et al. 2009, Timing of opening of the Drake Passage region, pp. 198–199
  57. ^ Lagabrielle et al. 2009, Conclusions, p. 210
  58. ^ Hill & Hall 2003, Abstract
  59. ^ Travouillon et al. 2009, Abstract
  60. ^ Barker et al. 2007, Abstract
  61. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, SILURIAN: terrestrial life appears in the tropics, p. 148
  62. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, The First Extinction, p. 151
  63. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, The Silurian revolution, p. 151
  64. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, DEVONIAN: colonising Gondwana; The Second Extinction; Global colonisation of plants, pp. 151, 153
  65. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, Amphibian prelude, p. 153
  66. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, CARBONIFEROUS: competing with ice, pp. 153–154
  67. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, PERMIAN: the glossopterid empire, pp. 153–154
  68. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, TRIASSIC: the gymnosperm heyday, pp. 155–156
  69. ^ Anderson et al. 1999, JURASSIC: volcanism, conifers and bennettitaleans, pp. 156, 158
  70. ^ a b Anderson et al. 1999, Cretaceous: of flowers and pollination, pp. 158–159
  71. ^ Gurovich & Beck 2009, Introduction, pp. 25–26
  72. ^ Woodburne, Rich & Springer 2003, Gondwana and early mammal evolution, p. 375
  73. ^ HaoMin & ZheKun 2007

Sources

External links