one of the two ancient supercontinents produced by the first split of the even larger supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago, comprising what are now North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia (excluding India)
See also Gondwanaland, Pangaea
Word origin
C20: from New Latin Laur(entia) (referring to the ancient N American landmass, from Laurentian strata of the Canadian Shield) + (Eur)asia
Laurasia in American English
(lɔˈreɪʒə; lɔˈreɪʃə)
the Mesozoic landmass in the Northern Hemisphere that included what are now North America and Eurasia: it and Gondwana were the result of the splitting of Pangea