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Gondwana

About: Gondwana is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6078 publications have been published within this topic receiving 263050 citations. The topic is also known as: Gondwanaland.


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Journal ArticleDOI
24 Feb 2005-Nature
TL;DR: A new, Late Cretaceous member of the clade, Neuquenraptor argentinus gen. et sp.
Abstract: Deinonychosaurs, the theropod dinosaur group most closely related to birds, are known mostly from fossils from North America and Asia. A new example, from Patagonia, is the first to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, part of the Gondwana supercontinent in the Late Cretaceous. Its similarity to the northern forms suggests that there was less divergence between the southern and northern land masses than was thought. Most of what is known about the evolution of deinonychosaurs (that is, the group of theropods most closely related to birds) is based on discoveries from North America and Asia1. Except for Unenlagia comahuensis2,3 and some fragmentary remains from northern Africa4, no other evidence was available on deinonychosaurian diversity in Gondwana. Here we report a new, Late Cretaceous member of the clade, Neuquenraptor argentinus gen. et sp. nov., representing uncontroversial evidence of a deinonychosaurian theropod in the Southern Hemisphere. The new discovery demonstrates that Cretaceous theropod faunas from the southern continents shared greater similarity with those of the northern landmasses than previously thought. Available evidence suggests that deinonychosaurians were probably distributed worldwide at least by the beginning of the Cretaceous period. The phylogenetic position of the new deinonychosaur, as well as other Patagonian coelurosaurian theropods, is compatible with a vicariance model of diversification for some groups of Gondwanan and Laurasian dinosaurs.

105 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The formation of Gondwana during the late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian times (550-530 Ma) was traditionally viewed as the welding of two, more or less contiguous, Proterozoian continental masses called East and West Gondwanas.

105 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, major and trace element abundances and Nd and Pb isotopes of sedimentary and igneous rocks of Late Proterozoic to Permian age from northwest Argentina and northern Chile (northern Puna) have been analyzed to evaluate paleogeographic reconstructions and the crustal evolution of the Pacific margin of Gondwana during the Paleozoic.
Abstract: Major and trace element abundances and Nd and Pb isotopes of sedimentary and igneous rocks of Late Proterozoic to Permian age from northwest Argentina and northern Chile (northern Puna) have been analyzed to evaluate paleogeographic reconstructions and the crustal evolution of the Pacific margin of Gondwana during the Paleozoic. Recycling of material solely derived from preexisting material of western Gondwana can explain the isotope compositions of the sedimentary samples. Major and trace element compositions of the sedimentary samples are similar to upper continental crust and show no systematic changes during the Paleozoic. Pre‐Ordovician and Ordovician sedimentary samples of the eastern belt of the northern Puna have homogeneous crustal eNd (450 Ma) values of \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,...

105 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: New paleomagnetic and $^{40}Ar/^{39}Ar$ age data from the Sinyai metadolerite dike in central Kenya support the suggestion that the eastern portion of Gondwana was assembled during two separate orogenic events.
Abstract: New paleomagnetic and $^{40}Ar/^{39}Ar$ age data from the Sinyai metadolerite dike in central Kenya support the suggestion that the eastern portion of Gondwana was assembled during two separate orogenic events. The dike intrudes Mozambique Belt metasediments dated $\approx700$ Ma and was itself metamorphosed to greenschist facies at $547 \pm 4$ Ma. This greenschist-facies event reset the original magnetization in the rocks and occurred over a time span that included at least one field reversal. The paleomagnetic pole at 20°S, 319°E ($\delta{p} = 3^\circ, \delta{m} = 5^\circ$) augments the available paleomagnetic database for Gondwana and suggests that Gondwana assembly was completed by 550 Ma; therefore the concept of a united East Gondwana continent may not be valid for pre-550 Ma time. In our model, the 650-800 Ma East Africa Orogeny resulted from a collision between the Congo craton of East Africa and the IMSLEK terranes (India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Enderby Land, and the Kalahari craton). A pervasive...

105 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The eastern edge of the Appalachian orogen is composed of a collection of Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic domains, which are exotic to North America as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The eastern edge of the Appalachian orogen is composed of a collection of Neoproterozoic – early Paleozoic domains, Avalonia, Carolinia, Ganderia, Meguma, and Suwannee, which are exotic to North America. Differences in the geological histories of these peri-Gondwanan domains indicate that each separated independently from Gondwana, opening the Rheic Ocean in their wake. Cambrian departure of Ganderia and Carolina was followed by the Ordovician separation of Avalonia and Silurian separation of Meguma. After separation in the early Paleozoic, these domains constituted the borderline between the expanding Rheic Ocean and contracting Iapetus Ocean. They were transferred to Laurentia by early Silurian closure of Iapetus and Devonian–Carboniferous closure of the Rheic Ocean during the assembly of Gondwana and Laurentia into Pangaea. The first domain to arrive at Laurentia was Carolinia, which accreted in the Middle Ordovician during the Cherokee orogeny. Salinic accretion of Ganderia occurred shortly thereafter and was followed by the Acadian accretion of Avalonia. The Acadian orogeny was immediately followed by Middle Devonian – Early Carboniferous accretion of Meguma and possibly Suwannee which led to the Fammenian orogeny. The episodicity of orogeny suggests that the present location of these domains parallels their order of accretion. However, each of these crustal blocks was translated along strike by large-scale Late Devonian – Carboniferous dextral strike–slip motion. The breakup of Pangaea occurred outboard of the Paleozoic collision zones that accreted Carolinia, Ganderia, Avalonia, Meguma, and Suwannee to Laurentia, leaving these terranes appended to North America during the Mesozoic opening of the Atlantic.

105 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023269
2022497
2021307
2020281
2019293
2018230