Neuquenraptor Hemisphere. South America however, during the Mesozoic became part of Gondwana. The find of "Neuquenraptor" provides some possible indication of the degree of isolation between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The supercontinent Pangaea started to break up in the Early Jurassic, leading to the separation around 160 Ma of Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. Gondwana itself was soon fragmented into West Gondwana (i.e., Africa and South America) and East Gondwana (i.e., Antarctica and Australia plus India and Madagascar). West Gondwana broke apart during the Cretaceous, as Africa and South America separated between 132 and 90 Ma.
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.