Laurasia formed - the Atlantic Ocean, though Greenland (attached to North America) and Europe were still joined together. The separation of Europe and Greenland occurred around 55 million years ago (at the end of the Paleocene). Laurasia finally divided into the continents after which it is named: Laurentia (now North America) and Eurasia (excluding the Indian subcontinent). Laurasia Laurasia () was the more northern of two supercontinents (the other being Gondwana) that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent around (Mya). It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pangaea, drifting farther north after the split.
Gondwana formation of Gondwana began with the East African Orogeny – the collision of India and Madagascar with East Africa – and was completed with the overlapping Brasiliano and Kuunga orogenies – the collision of South America with Africa and the addition of Australia and Antarctica, respectively. The continent of Gondwana was named by Austrian scientist Eduard Suess, after the Gondwana region of central India which is derived from Sanskrit for "forest of the Gonds". The name had been previously used in a geological context, first by H.B. Medlicott in 1872, from which the Gondwana sedimentary sequences (Permian-Triassic) are also described.