(3) Tethys Sea Explanation: The Tethys Ocean was an ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during much of the Mesozoic era, before the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous period. Today, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean cover the area once occupied by the Tethys Ocean, and Turkey, Iraq, and Tibet sit On Cimmeria. What was once the Tethys Sea has become the Mediterranean Sea. Geologists have found fossils of ocean creatures in rocks in the Himalayas indicating that those rocks were once underwater' before the Indian continental shelf began pushing upward as it smashed into Cimmeria.