The second largest continent of the Palaeozoic Era (545 to 248 million years ago), making up more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s continental area at its maximum extent. Confined to the southern hemisphere, this enormous land mass was involved in a series of collisions with other continental blocks, culminating in the formation of the supercontinent known as Pangaea during the Permian Period. Gondwana was the precursor to most of present-day South America, Australia, Antarctica, and India.