WHAT WAS PANGAEA?

In short, Pangaea (also spelled Pangea), was a supercontinent—a massive landmass that included all seven of today’s continents!

During Pangaea’s existence, almost all of Earth’s landmasses were clumped together into one enormous landform surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa (Ghose & Gegge, LiveScience, 2024). This means that, had we been alive then, we could have walked from what is now North America all the way to Africa without ever crossing an ocean!

Throughout our planet’s 4.5+ billion-year history, many supercontinents have formed and broken apart, including Pannotia, Gondwana, and Pangaea (Ralls, Earth.com, n.d.) Pangaea was the most recent of these supercontinents, forming around 335 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, and breaking apart around 175 million years ago, during the Late Triasic/Early Jurassic Period (Ralls, Earth.com, n.d.).

How do scientists know Pangaea was real?! Fossils of the same plant and animal species, such as the reptile Mesosaurus and the fern Glossopteris, have been found on continents now separated by oceans — suggesting these landmasses were once joined (USGS, 2012). Geologists have also discovered that the mountain ranges and rock layers in North America, Europe, and Africa match almost perfectly, as if they had been torn apart (National Park Service, n.d.). And perhaps the coolest clue: our modern continents still fit together like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle (See the map below!).

WHAT DID PANGAEA LOOK LIKE?

From space, Pangaea resembled a giant “C” shape, stretching from pole to pole (Britannica, n.d.). The Panthalassa Ocean—or, as they call it in Pangier, the Pantha—surrounded this enormous landmass (Britannica, n.d.). On the eastern coast, in the curve of the “C”, was a water body known as the Tethys Sea  (Britannica, n.d.).

Where present-day North America met Africa and Europe, sat the Central Pangean Mountains. At their historical highest, this range would have rivaled the Himalayas (Wikipedia, n.d.). Due to their sheer size, they likely acted as a formidable barrier, creating a rain shadow and arid deserts to the north (Wikipedia, n.d.). On the southern side of the mountains, persistent rainfall would have created lush, tropical, and swampy land (Ghose & Gegge, LiveScience, 2024).

Along the coast of Pangaea, seasonal megamonsoons would have generated significant moisture and precipitation. This moisture, combined with hot temperatures, created perfect conditions for plant growth. Towering trees and massive fern species, such as Glossopteris (reaching heights of 30 meters!), would have dominated the landscape.

The interior of this vast supercontinent was likely cooler and more arid (Britannica, n.d.).

Throughout time, Pangaea’s was home to a huge array of animal species ranging from the first mammals to the first dinosaurs. In the tropics and wetlands, amphibians and the first reptiles would have lurked in the forest, rivers, and swamps (Davis, National History Museum, n.d.). During the Triassic, and the last 60-70 million years of Pangaea’s existence, dinosaurs emerged and eventually dominated the landscape (Davis, National History Museum, n.d.). The Panthalasa teemed with life. On the ground, the first mammals appeared. And in the skies, the first winged creatures (Pterosaurs) took flight.

LIFE AFTER PANGAEA.

When Pangaea broke apart, the world’s biodiversity exploded. Entire populations of plants and animals were suddenly geographically split, evolving into entirely new species through allopatric speciation (Ghose & Gegge, LiveScience, 2024) and dispersal (McIntyre et al., 2017). Smaller, isolated landmasses sparked rapid adaptive radiation, with species adapting to fill new ecological niches (Lovette, Cornell Lab, 2018). Shifting ocean currents created cooler, drier climates—changes that may have boosted speciation and reduced extinction (Jordan et al., 2016). But what if Pangaea hadn’t broken apart? What would its biodiversity look like?

You may also have noticed that Clementine encounters surprisingly little wildlife (and no dinosaurs!), which is due to the limited diversification mentioned above. The plant life, however? Enormous! Skyscraper tall trees, mutant ferns, exotic fruits, and draping flowers abound…likely more variety than existed in ancient Pangaea.

And what about us? Would humans have existed at all? Unlikely, but I like to think so! Maybe we’d have wings, feathers, or gill stalks. After all, who’s to say that in another dimension we don’t look more like birds or amphibians (Amphi!)? And maybe in that world, we barely industrialized at all. Maybe, instead, we learned to live in harmony with nature. And if we did exist…