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 (57% of marine families and 83% of genera went extinct) which came to dominate in the Late Permian and from whom true conifers evolved. Tall lycopods and horsetails dominated the wetlands of Gondwana in the Early Permian. Insects co-evolved with glossopterids across Gondwana and diversified with more than 200 species in 21 orders by the Late Permian, many known from South Africa and Australia. Beetles and cockroaches remained minor elements in this fauna. Tetrapod fossils from the Early Permian have only been found in Laurasia but they became common in Gondwana later during the Permian. The arrival of the therapsids