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Gracie Howe

The Unique Australian Environment. Gracie Howe. Pangaea. Around 250 millions year ago all the continents were once joined together in one massive supercontinent. This land mass was known as Pangaea, which means ‘all lands’ in Greek.

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Gracie Howe

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  1. The Unique Australian Environment Gracie Howe

  2. Pangaea Around 250 millions year ago all the continents were once joined together in one massive supercontinent. This land mass was known as Pangaea, which means ‘all lands’ in Greek. Pangaea was then divided into two separate lands called Laurasia and Gondwana as a result of continental drift. The supercontinent was surrounded by one single ocean called Panthalassa.

  3. Around 70 million years later

  4. Laurasia Laurasia was the name given to the terrain that was found in the northern hemisphere of the earth after it broke away from the larger land mass, Pangaea. The name Laurasia originated from the two words Eurasia and Laurentia, which are words that represent some of the smaller continents in which Laurasia was made up of. It later broke up into North America and Europe and Asia.

  5. Gondwana Gondwana is the name given to the large mass of land that broke apart from Pangaea in the southern hemisphere. It was made up of many continents such as South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. It was named Gondwana after a region in the northern area of India, which was the place in which many of the first fossils from the Gondwana land were found.

  6. This animation shows the continental drift of earths land mass over millions of years. It took 150 million years for the continents to drift to their current position.

  7. Splitting of continents There are many different theories that have been proposed to be responsible for the break up of Gondwana, such as Volcanic hot spots throughout the land caused it to split, the earths crust simply stretched and caused it to eventually crack or, the most popular theory, Gondwana broke up because its size and weight was too large. Now days the continents are still moving thanks to continental drift which is a very slow but ongoing movement of the planets tectonic plates. This means that the continents will never stop moving and will constantly be changing their position on our planet.

  8. Flora and Fauna of Gondwana As the continents changed position, the climate of Gondwana would also changed. This would have effected the flora and fauna of Gondwana causing them to acclimatize to the new conditions. For example some animals may have had to find new habitats in order to seek shelter and protect themselves from various weather conditions. Reproduction of flora and fauna would have aided many different species surviving the break up of the continents as it gives them a better chance of survival.

  9. Fauna of Gondwana There were many different types of fauna on the land of Gondwana. From the information given to us by fossils, it’s apparent that dinosaurs roamed free around Gondwana for many years. These included the Ouranosaurus, Sauropods, Spinosaurus and the Austrosaurus. There were also many different species that inhabited the land of Gondwana. Many of these animals, such as the possum, adapted to the conditions of the Australian surroundings and therefore became native to the Australian environment. With the information found over the years it is apparent that fauna such as some spiders and other marsupials originated in other continents but are now a part of our Australian environment.

  10. Dinosaurs in Gondwana Gondwana started to be created in the Jurassic period therefore dinosaurs were around at this time. I believe that this change happening during the Jurassic period would have lead to the extinction of some breeds of dinosaurs as they may have faced a shortage of food and other important resources that were not available in their new environment. However it could also have lead to the evolution of certain species as they could acclimatize to their new surroundings and climate which would benefit the species and their reproduction.

  11. Human Interaction As the continents were all joined together , humans would simply walk across large land masses to reach another continent. For example there was once a bridge from Asia to Australia which humans used to first inhabit Australia. As years pasted, the tectonic plates moved eventually flooding the bridge resulting in Australia becoming a fully surrounded by water. Land Bridge

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