📸 GONDWANA MAP
GONDWANA: WHEN THE EARTH WAS ONE
Gondwana, also known as Gondwanaland, was an ancient supercontinent which first formed 800,000,000 years ago through the accretion of several cratons, including remnants of an even older supercontinent known as Rodinia. When viewed across the expanse of deep time, this cycle of movement, through rifting and accretion, resembles very slow-motion waves, breaking and crashing in similar patterns.
📸 GONDWANA ACROSS MILLIONS OF YEARS
Consider for a moment the mountainous Cimmerian belt (the "Cimmerides") between Turkey and Southeast Asia. The marine deposits here are the result of a late Paleozoic Era rifting event along the northern coast of Gondwana. The rift created a thin microcontinent referred to as Cimmeria that drifted northward, till eventually docking with the supercontinent of Laurasia.
The pattern repeats itself during the Mesozoic Era, as the breakup of Pangaea also begins the split of Gondwana into the present-day continents of Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and the Indian subcontinent. The Indian subcontinent, like Cimmeria before it, slowly drifted northwards and crashed into Laurasia, lifting up the Himalayas in an event that is still ongoing today.
📸 ARAYCARIA HETEROPHYLLA
LIFE ON GONDWANA
Far of as Gondwana is, some of its flora and fauna survive even into the modern day. Consider the Araucaria coniferous tree—the "primitive" look of this tree hasn't changed much over the last 200,000,000 years. Averaging 30-60 meters in height, Araucaria feature straight, columnar trunks, and branches covered in overlapping, scale-like leaves. It should come as no surprise that scientists believe this conifer was a favorite food for long-necked sauropods.
Though well suited to subtropical climates, there are only pockets of Araucaria in the southern hemisphere today, primarily in Chile, Argentina, Australia, and the island of New Caledonia. Yet, during the Jurassic Period, Araucaria could be found in great abundance across the world along with other gymnosperms and ferns.
Jurassic Tree - Araucaria Fossil
Jurassic Tree - Araucaria Fossil
Mazon Creek Fossil Plant - 4.24"
Fossil Fern Pendant
Baltic Amber Pendant Necklace
Jurassic Tree - Araucaria Fossil
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Gondwana: When the Earth Was One
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Further Reading
Chapman, Frank M. "Darwin's Chile." Geographical Journal (1926): 369-381.
Farjon, Aljos. A Natural History of Conifers. Timber Press, 2008.
Hummel, Jürgen, et al. "In Vitro Digestibility of Fern and Gymnosperm Foliage: Implications for Sauropod Feeding Ecology and Diet Selection." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 275.1638 (2008): 1015-1021.
Gerhard, Lee C. & William E. Harrison. "Distribution of Oceans & Continents: A Geological Constraint on Global Climate Variability." In Geological Perspectives of Global Climate Change, edited by Lee C. Gerhard, et al., AAPG Studies in Geology, 2001, pp. 35-49.
Gernandt, David S., et al. "The Conifers (Pinophyta)." Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Conifers (2011): 1-39.
Suess, Eduard. The face of the earth:(Das antlitz der erde). Vol. 4. Clarendon press, 1909.