Article: Phanerozoic world maps

Provisional world maps have been drawn for eight past periods: Tertiary (Eocene); Cretaceous; Jurassic; Triassic; Permian; Lower Carboniferous; Lower Devonian; Cambrian/Lower Ordovician. Maps of Permian and later time show the major continents in their original palaeolatitudes and with their relative longitude separations. Though the palaeolatitudes can be estimated for the pre-Permian continents, the relative longitude separations are not known. Three maps have been drawn for each period: Mercator, symmetrical about the inferred palaeoequator; and two stereographic projections centred on the inferred north and south palaeopoles. The data used are tabulated and their limitations are discussed.