2026-09-16 Source: Science and Technology Daily and several other Chinese and international media outlets

Contributor: Petrology Working Group

In a breakthrough that could unlock one of Earth's most perplexing mysteries, Chinese and international scientists have, for the first time, identified numerous buried "lost continents"—fragments of Gondwana—from a deep-prospecting perspective, reconstructing the "Greater Gondwana" supercontinent. The findings, recently published in Science Advances, provide a key to decoding the dramatic global changes that occurred approximately 500 million years ago.

The Ediacaran-Cambrian transition (approximately 550–500 million years ago) stands as one of the most enigmatic turning points in Earth's evolutionary history. During this period, the planet experienced profound cross-spheric upheavals: mantle dynamics shifted, sea levels and atmospheric composition fluctuated dramatically, seawater chemistry oscillated repeatedly, and metazoan phyla emerged in concentrated bursts—setting the stage for the "Cambrian Explosion" of life.

The scientific community widely believes that global-scale Earth system transformations are predominantly driven by the "cycles" of supercontinent assembly and breakup. By classical definition, a supercontinent must encompass at least 75% of Earth's existing continental crust. Both Pangea and Rodinia meet this criterion, but neither existed 500 million years ago. Gondwana, the most likely candidate from that period, traditionally reconstructed at only about 64% of continental crust, has long been excluded from the "supercontinent club." Without a recognized supercontinent, explaining the extreme global perturbations of the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition through supercontinent cycles has remained an elusive challenge.

Tao Wang, a researcher at the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and his international team have broken new ground using deep-matter detection technology. The team has long studied the deep material composition of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the Tibetan Plateau. In recent years, leveraging the "Deep-time Digital Earth" (DDE) international big science program, they established a global magmatic rock database and research platform, including an isotope database with latitude and longitude coordinates. Collaborating with Zhejiang Lab, they developed intelligent technology to extract sample coordinates from legacy texts, overcoming the bottleneck of missing spatial coordinates in old data. This study is based on 25,346 high-quality whole-rock neodymium isotope records covering Asia, Central Europe, North America, and Australia.

"We used special technology to obtain coordinates and locations from old texts, expanding our research from Asia to the globe," Wang said. Paper co-author William Collins, a professor at Curtin University in Australia, likened samarium-neodymium isotope ratios to "fingerprints" of lost continents: "They are like a time machine—even if the mountain range where the rock resides is only 20 million years old, they can help us identify ancient blocks from 500 million years ago (Fig. 1)."

Figure 1: Continental-scale Nd isotope mapping of Asia, Central Europe, and North America, revealing the composition and distribution of old and young deep-seated materials

The isotope mapping results were unexpected: beneath the young orogenic belts of Eurasia, North America, and Australia lie numerous Precambrian ancient crustal fragments—the "lost pieces" that drifted, accreted, and were buried after Gondwana's breakup (Figs 1 and 2). After "reassembling" these fragments, Gondwana's area surged to 80% of global continental crust, crossing the 75% supercontinent threshold and placing it on par with the two recognized supercontinents, Pangea and Rodinia (Fig. 3).

Figure 2: Simplified geological map of Asia and the isotopic T_DM2 map (map of old and young materials in the deep crust). The geological map focuses on Paleozoic–Cenozoic tectonic strata; the isotopic map reveals the distribution of old and young materials in the deep crust, i.e., the “map of crustal materials.”

Figure 3: The newly proposed “Greater Gondwana” supercontinent and its area (123 Mkm², accounting for 80% of the world’s landmass), which far exceeds the area of the traditional Gondwana (~100 Mkm², small inset in the upper left corner)

"We named it 'Greater Gondwana,' confirming it as a true supercontinent," Wang said. More importantly, the peaks of this supercontinent's assembly and breakup coincide precisely with the timing of the global multi-spheric transformations 500 million years ago, further confirming its role as a driving force.

The establishment of "Greater Gondwana" provides a complete dynamic chain for deciphering Earth's dramatic changes. Supercontinent assembly spawned a "subduction ring" spanning 79% of Earth's circumference. Collins compared it to an ancient version of the Pacific Ring of Fire: "Large amounts of volcanic gases, especially water and carbon dioxide, were absolutely crucial for climate change and biodiversity." Volcanic activity released greenhouse gases that altered the atmosphere-ocean carbon cycle, while continental uplift and erosion input nutrients such as phosphorus and iron into the oceans—collectively creating conditions for the Cambrian Explosion of life.

The study also suggests that determining a supercontinent should not rely solely on area but must consider its ability to drive global environmental-biological linkages. Interestingly, this discovery was an "accidental" surprise: the team was originally building a database and studying the deep material composition of Asia's complex continents, yet pieced together the "Greater Gondwana" supercontinent. Such "unexpected" moments amid long-term accumulation are often the very source of original innovation. Regarding future research, Wang stated: "If we expand the database, we may achieve unexpected new discoveries and results."

This research applies intelligent technology and high-quality datasets to perform a material detection "CT scan" of Earth's deep interior, discovering buried, dispersed continental fragments and creating the "Greater Gondwana" supercontinent. It provides a complete causal chain linking deep mantle dynamics, plate movement, ocean-atmosphere chemical evolution, and biological explosions, offering a new paradigm for deep-time Earth system evolution research.

The research findings have attracted attention and coverage from mainstream media both domestically and internationally. On the day the paper was published online, multiple renowned foreign media outlets including Scientific American (US) and Daily Mail (UK) conducted interviews and reports. Recently, CCTV, Science and Technology Daily, Guangming Daily, and others have also conducted interviews and reports.

1. Scientific American (US)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-maps-reveal-hidden-landscapes-inside-a-prehistoric-supercontinent

English Title: New maps reveal hidden landscapes inside a prehistoric supercontinent

2. Daily Mail (UK)

https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-16116893/Long-lost-supercontinent-Gondwana-550-million-years.html

English Title: Long-lost supercontinent is pieced together after 550 million years: Incredible map reveals how Gondwana represented 80% of Earth's landmass

3. BigNewsNetwork (MENAFN news distribution platform, press release reprint)

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/279296932/gondwana-really-was-a-supercontinent-and-it-helped-kick-start-life-on-earth

English Title: Gondwana really was a supercontinent and it helped kick-start life on earth

4. 404 Media (Independent digital media, focusing on in-depth tech and science reporting)

https://www.404media.co/the-remnants-of-a-lost-supercontinent-just-rewrote-the-history-of-life-on-earth/

English Title: The Remnants of a Lost 'Supercontinent' Just Rewrote the History of Life on Earth