Anostraca the Gondwana fragmentation closely echoes the current distribution of the order. Presently, Anostraca are found on all seven continents. Most of the extant genera have restricted geographical distributions. Only three genera are widespread across the remnants of the former supercontinent Pangaea: "Artemia", "Branchinella" and "Branchinecta", while the remaining genera are found only throughout former Laurasia. This suggests that much of the potential habitat in this supercontinent, now occupied by Anostraca, to have been unoccupied by ecologically similar species, or to have been inhabited by species with less adaptive ability. Studies have found Anostraca capable of rapid colonization and speciation. Anostraca
Gondwana began to rift while the eastern end was still being assembled. The formation of Pangaea and its mountains had a tremendous impact on global climate and sea levels, which resulted in glaciations and continent-wide sedimentation. In North America, the base of the Absaroka sequence coincides with the Alleghanian and Ouachita orogenies and are indicative of a large-scale change in the mode of deposition far away from the Pangaean orogenies. Ultimately, these changes contributed to the Permian–Triassic extinction event and left large deposits of hydrocarbons, coal, evaporite, and metals. The break-up of Pangaea began with the Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP)