Laurasia
[law-rey-zhuh, -shuh]
- a hypothetical landmass in the Northern Hemisphere near the end of the Paleozoic Era: split apart to form North America and Eurasia.
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Compare Gondwana.
Origin of Laurasia
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Laurasia
- one of the two ancient supercontinents produced by the first split of the even larger supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago, comprising what are now North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia (excluding India)See also Gondwanaland, Pangaea
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Word Origin
C20: from New Latin Laur (entia) (referring to the ancient N American landmass, from Laurentian strata of the Canadian Shield) + (Eur) asia
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for laurasia
Laurasia
1931; see Laurentian.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Laurasia
[lô-rā′zhə]
- A supercontinent of the Northern Hemisphere made up of the landmasses that currently correspond to North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia (except India). According to the theory of plate tectonics, Laurasia separated from Pangaea at the end of the Paleozoic Era and broke up into the current continents in the middle of the Mesozoic Era. Compare Gondwanaland.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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