History of Earth took place during the Carboniferous period (359–299 Ma) and resulted in the formation of the last supercontinent, Pangaea. By 180 Ma, Pangaea broke up into Laurasia and Gondwana. The rate of the evolution of life as recorded by fossils accelerated in the Cambrian period (542–488 Ma). The sudden emergence of many new species, phyla, and forms in this period is called the Cambrian Explosion. The biological fomenting in the Cambrian Explosion was unpreceded before and since that time. Whereas the Ediacaran life forms appear yet primitive and not easy to put in any modern group, at the end of the
Gondwana Late Triassic and became important in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. It is possible that gymnosperm biodiversity surpassed later angiosperm biodiversity and that the evolution of angiosperms began during the Triassic but, if so, in Laurasia rather than in Gondwana. Two Gondwanan classes, lycophytes and sphenophytes, saw a gradual decline during the Triassic while ferns, though never dominant, managed to diversify. The brief period of ice house conditions during the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event had a dramatic impact on dinosaurs but left plants largely unaffected. The Jurassic was mostly one of hot house conditions and, while vertebrates managed to diversify in this