Continent a period of 2.0–1.8 billion years ago and broke up about 1.5–1.3 billion years ago. The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have formed about 1 billion years ago and to have embodied most or all of Earth's continents, and broken up into eight continents around 600 million years ago. The eight continents later re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea; Pangaea broke up into Laurasia (which became North America and Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became the remaining continents). The following table lists the seven continents with their highest and lowest points on land, sorted in decreasing highest points. † The lowest
South China (continent) Ocean. By the Late Carboniferous (300 million years ago), while North China collided with Siberia and Kazakhstania, completely closing the Proto-Tethys Ocean, South China became an independent continent. For much of the Permian Period, South China remained in the tropical latitudes. And also, while most of the giant lycopods of the Carboniferous disappeared, giant lycopods remained in South China, since its isolation from the now formed Pangaea. Cimmeria, a microcontinent that consisted of today's Tibet, Iran, Turkey, and parts of Southeast Asia rifted away from Gondwana (just as North and South China did earlier), and was heading towards Laurasia. Paleo-Tethys