Pangaea was the supercontinent that assembled about 300 million years ago and later began breaking apart.
Its name comes from Greek roots meaning “all Earth.” Pangaea brought nearly all of the planet’s continental landmasses together during the late Paleozoic Era and early Mesozoic Era. A large ocean called Panthalassa surrounded it, while the Tethys Ocean occupied a major embayment along its eastern side.
Pangaea began fragmenting during the Triassic and Jurassic periods, roughly 200 million years ago. The breakup eventually produced the separate continents familiar today, including through the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Continental drift explains why matching fossils, rock layers and ancient mountain belts occur on continents now separated by oceans.
Pangaea was not Earth’s first supercontinent. Older examples include Rodinia and Gondwana-related assemblies, so these names are not interchangeable. Gondwana was a major southern landmass that later formed part of Pangaea.