See their Figure 5 [1] where they hypothesize how Zealandia was formed from the breakup of Gondwana, before which it did in fact lie adjacent to what later beca

See their Figure 5 [1] where they hypothesize how Zealandia was formed from the breakup of Gondwana, before which it did in fact lie adjacent to what later became a separate 'Australia' continent. Some of the definitions are complicated by the fact that continents join and break up, and their continuity across multiple continental cycles is not a given -- but that of cratons is, which are sort of an inner core of really old rocks that managed to survive all sorts of tectonic abuse. Zealandia has yet to be shown to contain a craton, presence of which would probably result in its undisputed acceptance as a continent. All of today's "classical" continents are amalgamations of contiguous continental crust around one or more neighboring cratons. See the 'Geology' section for discussion. [1] https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/figure/GSATG321A.1-f05.htm https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/figure/GSAT...