Geological history of Earth living in lagoons and hypersaline environments, such as "Estheria" crustaceans and terrestrial vertebrates. The Jurassic Period extends from about 201.3 ± 0.2 to 145.0 Ma. During the early Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea broke up into the northern supercontinent Laurasia and the southern supercontinent Gondwana; the Gulf of Mexico opened in the new rift between North America and what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Jurassic North Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow, while the South Atlantic did not open until the following Cretaceous Period, when Gondwana itself rifted apart. The Tethys Sea closed, and the Neotethys basin appeared. Climates were warm,
Pangaea closing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, but forming a new ocean, the Tethys Ocean, in its southern end. Most of the landmasses were all in one. By the Triassic Period, Pangaea rotated a little and the Cimmerian plate was still travelling across the shrinking Paleo-Tethys, until the Middle Jurassic. The Paleo-Tethys had closed from west to east, creating the Cimmerian Orogeny. Pangaea, which looked like a "C", with the new Tethys Ocean inside the "C", had rifted by the Middle Jurassic, and its deformation is explained below. Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes the presence of similar and identical species on continents that