<P> During the Mid - to Late Triassic Hot House condition coincided with a peak in biodiversity--the end - Permian extinction was huge and so was the radiation that followed . Two families of conifers, Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae, dominated Gondwana in the Early Triassic, but Dicroidium, an extinct genus of fork - leaved seed ferns, dominated woodlands and forests of Gondwana during most of the Triassic . Conifers evolved and radiated during the period with six of eight extant families already present before the end of it . Bennettitales and Pentoxylales, two now extinct orders of gymnospermous plants, evolved in the Late Triassic and became important in the Jurassic and Cretaceous . It is possible that gymnosperm biodiversity surpassed later angiosperm biodiversity and that the evolution of angiosperms began during the Triassic but, if so, in Laurasia rather than in Gondwana . Two Gondwanan classes, lycophytes and sphenophytes, saw a gradual decline during the Triassic while ferns, though never dominant, managed to diversify . </P> <P> The brief ice house of the Triassic--Jurassic extinction event had a dramatic impact on dinosaurs but left plants largely unaffected . The Jurassic was mostly a hot house and while vertebrates managed to diversify in this environment plants has left little evidence of such development, with the exception of Cheiroleidiacean conifers and Caytoniales and other groups of seed ferns . In terms of biomass the Jurassic flora was dominated by conifers families and other gymnosperms that had evolved during the Triassic . The Pteridophytes, that had dominated during the Palaeozoic, were now marginalised, except for ferns . In contrast to Laurentia, very few insect fossils have been found in Gondwana to a large extent because of widespread deserts and volcanism . While plants had a cosmopolitan distribution, dinosaur evolved and diversified in a pattern that reflects the Jurassic break - up of Panagaea . </P> <P> The Cretaceous saw the arrival of the angiosperms, or flowering plants, a group that probably evolved in western Gondwana (South America - Africa). From there the angiosperms diversified in two stages: the monocots and magnoliids evolved in the Early Cretaceous followed by the hammamelid dicots . By the Mid-Cretaceous angiosperms constituted half of the flora in northeastern Australia . There is, however, no obvious connection between this spectacular angiosperm radiation and an extinction event nor vertebrate / insect evolution . Insect orders associated with pollination, such as beetles, flies, butterflies and moths, and wasps, bees, and ants, radiated continuously from the Permian - Triassic long before the arrival of the angiosperms . Well - preserved insect fossils have been found in the lake deposits of the Santana Formation in Brazil, the Koonwarra Lake fauna in Australia, and the Orapa diamond mine in Botswana . Dinosaurs continued to prosper but, as the angiosperm diversified, conifers, bennettitaleans and pentoxylaleans disappeared from Gondwana c. 115 Ma together with the specialised herbivorous ornithischians whilst generalist browsers such as several families of sauropodomorph Saurischia prevailed . The Cretaceous--Paleogene extinction event killed off all dinosaurs except birds, but plant evolution in Gondwana was hardly affected by the event . Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of non-therian mammals with a Gondwanan distribution (South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, and Antarctica) during the Late Cretaceous and Palaeogene . Xenarthra and Afrotheria, two placental clades, are of Gondwanan origin and probably began to evolve separately c. 105 Ma when Africa and South America separated . </P> <P> The laurel forest of Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand have a number of other related species of the laurissilva de Valdivia, through the connection of the Antarctic flora as gymnosperms and deciduous angiosperm Nothofagus . Corynocarpus laevigatus is called the bay of New Zealand, Laurelia novae - zelandiae belongs to the same genus Laurelia . The sempervirens tree niaouli grows in Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand . New Caledonia and New Zealand ecoregions became separated from Australia by continental drift 85 million years ago . The islands still retain plants that originated in Gondwana and spread to the Southern Hemisphere continents later . However, strong evidence exists of glaciation during the Carboniferous to Permian time, especially in South Africa . </P>

Which continent of today is part of gondwanaland