South China (continent) South China (continent) South China, also known as South China Craton, South Chinese Craton, or Yangtze Craton, was an ancient continent (craton) that contained today's South and Southeast China, Indochina, and parts of Southeast Asia (i.e. Borneo and adjacent islands). South China had been part of past supercontinents, including Rodinia, Pannotia, Gondwana, Pangaea and Laurasia. About one billion years ago, during the late Proterozoic, the Rodinia supercontinent formed. South China was part of Rodinia. South China was bordered by the Mirovia Ocean to the north, Siberia to the east, Australia to the west, and Laurentia to the south. 750 million
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