Metatheria ago, followed by the evolution of deltatheroidian-like taxa in Asia and North America about 120-100 million years ago and then the Paleocene diversification of relatives to the crown marsupials in South America. This makes it a contemporary to some early eutherian species that have been found in the same area. The oldest metatherian fossils are found in present-day China. About 100 mya, the supercontinent Pangaea was in the process of splitting into the northern continent Laurasia and the southern continent Gondwana, with what would become China and Australia already separated by the Tethys Ocean. From there, metatherians spread westward into
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.