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gondwanaland

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Gond⋅wa⋅na

  [gond-wah-nuh]
Use gondwanaland in a Sentence
–noun
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 Gond⋅wa⋅na⋅land.
Compare Laurasia.

Origin:
1870–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To gondwanaland
Gond·wa·na·land   (gŏnd-wä'nə-lānd')   
n.  The hypothetical protocontinent of the Southern Hemisphere that, according to the theory of plate tectonics, broke up into India, Australia, Antarctica, Africa, and South America.

[After Gondwana, a region of central India, from Gond.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Gondwana 
name of a region in north central India, from Skt. gondavana, from vana "forest" + Gonda, name of a Dravidian people, lit. "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 was thus called Gondwanaland (1896), from Ger., where it was coined by E. Suess in 1885.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Science Dictionary
Gondwanaland   (gŏnd-wä'nə-lānd')  Pronunciation Key 
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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