Earth might not have seven continents after all. From an early age, most of us are taught to recognize seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.

There are seven continents on Earth ... which is believed to have broken off from Antarctica about 100 million years ago, and then from Australia about 80 million years ago.

Instead, the move happened in fits and starts, with continents creeping apart at that single-millimeter-per-year rate for 40 million years, and then suddenly speeding up to 20 times that speed ...

By 10 million years ago the two continents were in direct collision ... you drive from the last hills of the Himalaya southward 100 km. The present is obvious, but the historical record cannot ...

Over the past 2 billion years, Earth's continents have collided together ... The end-Permian extinction some 252 million years ago, coinciding with the formation of Pangea, killed some 90 percent ...

3 min read Continents were on the move in the Cretaceous ... in the extinction event at the end of the period 65 million years ago. In fact, the land, seas, and skies would never be the same ...

Other lost continents include Zealandia, which was recently sampled after sinking 100 to 80 million years ago. The study is published in Gondwana Research.