Lystrosaurus and Gondwanaland

Abstract

Gondwanaland, that hypothetical supercontinent composed of what are now the continents of Africa, South America, Australia, and Antarctica, and the subcontinent of peninsular India, has been the subject of much lively discussion among geologists, paleontologists, and biologists for more than half a century. Likewise, the inferred phenomenon of continental drift, involving the rifting of Gondwanaland into several large fragments, which are the continents listed above, and the subsequent drifting of those continental blocks to the positions they now occupy, has likewise occupied the attention of many interested authorities, as well as other people, through the past six decades. (It might be added that there has also been a correlative concept of Laurasia, a superconti-nent of what are now the northern hemisphere land masses, with its rifting, and the drifting of its several parts to their present positions. Furthermore, many authorities have envisaged a still larger land mass, Pangaea, embracing both Gondwanaland and Laurasia.) According to most students of the problem, Gondwanaland and Laurasia (or Pangaea) are supposed to have existed during at least the latter part of the Paleozoic and the beginning of the Mesozoic eras, the rifting and drifting having taken place at some time subsequent to the middle or final stages of Triassic history.