Prehistoric supercontinent in the southern hemisphere, composed of South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica.
Gondwana (also known as Gondwanaland) was named by the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess after a district in India where the fossil plant Glossopteris was found. The distribution of this fossil throughout the southern hemisphere led Suess to deduce that the southern continents were once joined, supporting German geologist Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift.