Continents under the Mesozoic era

The shape of the continents on Earth was different; the continents were joined together at the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, forming the supercontinent of Pangaea, but broke apart toward the middle of the Mesozoic Era.

The Pangaea supercontinent spanned Earth's equatorial regions and separated the Panthalassic Ocean and the Tethys Ocean basins

At the start of the Mesozoic Era, there was little separation between the continental crust that would eventually form the North American, European, South American, and African Continents.

Driven by plate tectonics, by the middle of the Mesozoic Era (approximately 170 million years ago) the North American and European continents diverged and the earliest form of the Atlantic Ocean emerged between the continents