Gondwana

[gond-wah-nuh] /gɒndˈwɑ nə/
noun
1.
a hypothetical landmass in the Southern Hemisphere that separated toward the end of the Paleozoic Era to form South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia.
Also called Gondwanaland.
Compare Laurasia.
Origin
1870-75
British Dictionary definitions for gondwanaland

Gondwanaland

/ɡɒndˈwɑːnəˌlænd/
noun
1.
one of the two ancient supercontinents produced by the first split of the even larger supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago, comprising chiefly what are now Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and the Indian subcontinent
Word Origin
C19: from Gondwana region in central north India, where the rock series was originally found
Word Origin and History for gondwanaland

Gondwana

name of a region in north central India, from Sanskrit gondavana, from vana "forest" + Gonda, name of a Dravidian people, literally "fleshy navel, outie belly-button." The name was extended by geologists to a series of sedimentary rocks found there (1873), then to identical rocks in other places; the fossils found in this series were used by geologists to reconstruct the ancient southern supercontinent, which therefore was called Gondwanaland (1896), from German, where it was coined by German geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914) in 1885.

gondwanaland in Science
Gondwanaland
  (gŏnd-wä'nə-lānd')   
A supercontinent of the Southern Hemisphere made up of the landmasses that currently correspond to India, Australia, Antarctica, and South America. According to the theory of plate tectonics, Gondwanaland separated from Pangaea at the end of the Paleozoic Era and broke up into the current continents in the middle of the Mesozoic Era. Compare Laurasia.