Permian (286 to 245 mya)

Late permian pix

Vast deserts covered western Pangea during the Permian as reptiles spread across the face of the supercontinent. 99% of all life perished during the extinction event that marked the end of the Paleozoic Era. By the end of the Paleozoic Era, most of the oceans that had opened during the breakup of Pannotia, were consumed as the continents collided to form the supecontinent of Pangea.Centered on the Equator, Pangea stretched from the South Pole to the North Pole, and separated the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to the east, from the Panthalassic Ocean to the west. During the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian the southern regions of Pangea (southern South America and southern Africa, Antarctica, India, southern India, and Australia) were glaciated.

The word "Pangea" means "all land". Though the formation of this supercontinent marked the end of the Paleozoic Era, "Pangea", albeit Pangea probably did not include all the landmasses that existed at that time. In the eastern hemiphere, on either side of the Paleo-TethysOcean, there were continents that were separated from the supercontinent. What is now North and South China as well as parts of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and Malaya (see map) are likely to have rifted away from the Indo-Australian margin of Gondwana during the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Permian. These landmasses together with the Chinese continent, moved northwards towards Eurasia, ultimately colliding along the southern margin of Siberia during the late Triassic Period. It was only after the collision of these Asian fragments that all the world's landmasses were joined together in a supercontinent truly warranting of the name "Pangea".

During the latest Paleozoic into the early Mesozoic, Pangaea spanned the equator. Several slices were removed from the northeastern margin of Gondwana and drifted across the Tethys Ocean to collide with Asia. Most notable were the Cimmerian blocks that included Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Malaysia. The western fringe of Pangaea was adjacent to a long subduction zone that formed the eastern margin of the Pacific "ring of fire".