Pangaea and its oceans 250 million years ago

Explore reconstructed Pangaea at 250 million years ago, then move the timeline toward today to follow the continents and their surrounding oceans. Coastlines are approximate.

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Pangaea and its oceans 250 million years ago

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CO₂280ppm
Temp14.3°C
Sea0m
O₂21%

Annual surface temperature from CESM (T): a model estimate, not a direct observation of the past.

0 Ma: pre-industrial climate/CO₂; modern sea-level and O₂ references.

Data references
CenCO2PIP Consortium vetted productMiller et al. (2020), smoothed Cenozoic sea level relative to modernMills et al. (2023), Evolution of Atmospheric O₂ Through the Phanerozoic, Revisited, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 51:253–276Li et al. (2022), CESM surface temperature
Sources & methods
🧑
Quaternary
Ice Ages and Humanity
▼

Glacial-interglacial cycles with 120m+ sea level swings. Homo sapiens spread from Africa across the globe, and most megafauna went extinct.

Key Life
🧑Homo sapiens🦣Mammoth🧔Neanderthals
Innovations
  • ›Language and culture
  • ›Agricultural revolution (~10,000 years ago)
  • ›Birth of civilization
Simplified Köppen
Af Rainforest
Am Monsoon
Aw Savanna
BW Desert
BS Steppe
Cf Temperate wet
Cs/Cw Temperate dry
Df Cold wet
Dw Cold dry
ET Tundra
EF Ice
CESM (Li et al. 2022)

Annual model means · 0 Ma: pre-industrial

🦴 Fossils—
Vertebrates
Invertebrates

Mapped sample / window records · not abundance
0–2.5 Ma

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Map sources & limits

API records whose numeric ages miss the queried window are excluded from the map and counts, with exclusions retained in provenance.

Plate boundaries are a separate model comparison. Their reference frame differs from PALEOMAP terrain and coordinates; coastlines may not align.

· 0 Ma

Data & licenses ↗
Precambrian
Paleozoic
Mesozoic
Cenozoic
Hadean
Archean
Proterozoic
Cambrian
Ordovician
Devonian
Carbonif.
Permian
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene

Present