Pangaea was the supercontinent that existed roughly 300 million years ago.
Pangaea brought nearly all of Earth’s major landmasses together during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. The name comes from Greek roots meaning “all Earth.” It was surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa, while a large eastern oceanic embayment was known as the Tethys Sea.
The supercontinent began assembling during the Carboniferous and was largely complete by the early Permian. It started breaking apart during the Triassic and Jurassic periods as tectonic plates moved. The breakup eventually produced the Atlantic Ocean and separated landmasses that became the modern continents.
Pangaea is not the same as Gondwana or Laurasia. Gondwana and Laurasia were major continental groupings associated with the later breakup of Pangaea. The concept is supported by matching coastlines, related fossils on now-separated continents, continuous rock belts, and paleoclimate evidence such as glacial deposits in areas that are tropical today.