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Which modern continents formed Gondwana during the Jurassic Period?
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Jurassic Period
Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the late Jurassic Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.
During the Jurassic Period, the southern supercontinent of Gondwana consisted of the following modern landmasses:
- South America
- Africa
- India
- Antarctica
- Australia
- Madagascar
- Arabia12
While Gondwana was a cohesive unit at the start of the Jurassic, the period marked the beginning of its fragmentation. Approximately 180 million years ago, the supercontinent began to split into a western half (Africa and South America) and an eastern half (Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica), initiating the long process of continental drift that eventually formed the modern world map.12