The Mesosaurus Inland Sea covered, in the Late Palaeozoic, vast areas (~5 Mio km2) of the SWGondwanan continental interior. Major depocentres are represented by the Karoo basins of SW-Africa as well as the Paraná and Sauce Grande basins in South America. In Antarctica deposits of this inland sea can be found in the Ellsworth and Transantarctic Mountains. All these areas were interconnected prior to the break-up of Gondwana and the subsequent opening of the South Atlantic Ocean.