Research suggests that the land mass that once dominated Earth was larger than previously thought
2-MIN READ2-MINDannie Pengin BeijingPublished: 8:00pm, 19 Sep 2026Fragments of a long-disappeared ancient giant land mass have been discovered buried deep beneath parts of the modern continents that once formed it, according to an international team led by Chinese scientists.
Crucially, the findings show how geological activity related to Gondwana created favourable conditions for the Cambrian explosion.
The study was jointly conducted by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Australia’s Curtin University, and Zhejiang Lab, a non-profit research institution in eastern China.
