Gondwanaland: the search for a land before (human) time
Around 400 million years ago, before Australia was a continent on its own, we were lying on our side, attached to Antarctica, India, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand, in a giant land mass called Gondwanaland (also commonly known as ‘Gondwana’).
This ancient supercontinent – tucked away deep in time – existed well before humans, before human ancestors, even.
It was on Earth, but not an Earth that we’d recognise: the world was split into two supercontinents, with no ice caps on either end, and carbon dioxide levels were about seven times higher than they are today. Earth was hot, humid, and full of lush vegetation – and dinosaurs were starting to dominate the land.
One by one, the pieces of the supercontinent started to break up, each floating our separate ways across the globe – South Asia migrating to the global north, Antarctica to the southern pole, while the rest of us stretched across the southern oceans. Each land mass took with it living flora and fauna as evidence of the life we once lived together.
Fast-forward to today, and Gondwanaland has a modern history – a present, even – that’s being uncovered as part of an international research project called ‘Gondwana/Land’, led by UNSW Sydney, with Flinders University.
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