Pannotia

Pannotia was a supercontinent firstly described by Dalziel in 1997 which existed from about six hundred million years ago to about five hundred forty million years ago.

About seven hundred fifty million years ago, the previous supercontinent Rodinia rifted apart into three continents:

• Protolaurasia (Protolaurasia broke apart and eventually reformed as Laurasia)
• Congo
• Protogondwana (all of Gondwana except the Congo-Craton and Atlantica)

Protolaurasia rotated southwards towards the south pole. Protogondwana rotated counterclockwise. Congo came between Protogondwana and Protolaurasia about six hundred million years ago. This formed Pannotia.

Pannotia was short-lived. The collisions which formed Pannotia were glancing collisions, and the continents composing Pannotia already had active rifting. By about five hundred forty million years ago, or only about sixty million years after Pannotia formed, Pannotia disintegrated into four continents:

• Laurentia
• Baltica
• Siberia
• Gondwana

The time between the breakup of Rodinia and the breakup of Pannotia was the Ediacaran. The Ediacaran saw the emergence of the five Kingdoms of multicellular life:

• Porifera (sponges)
• Metazoans (animals)
• Fungi (fungus)
• Multicellular Plants (algæ)
• Vendians (an extinct kingdom of sessile gelatinous objects with mutually symbiotic autotrophs in the jelly)

External Links

• A picture about Pannotia according to Professor Christopher R. Scotese Ph.D. (referred to as late Precambrian Supercontinent in the image).